Working As A Referee
Who do referees work for?
Referees work under the Football Association, but that is done via the Local County Association. As I said before, the Bowman County, if I refereed up around there, is the Local County Football Association, but each county football association throughout England is a branch of the Football Association. Ultimately, you are registered through the football association via your local county.
Do you work in particular parts of the country as a referee?
The referees on the top list work anywhere. They can even work very locally. The premier league, for example, will go anywhere from Newcastle to London, from Liverpool down to West Devon, I suppose - we've had some from West Devon. You go anywhere, anytime. Full time referees are employed by the PGMOB is the Professional Game Match Officials Board. They make the appointments for the premier league and the referees. In parks you work locally, but as you go on up the structure, you work farther and farther afield.
Do you work in particular leagues?
When you first start off as a referee, you'll work in the local leagues. Because there's a catchment area, there are a fair number of leagues. When you're in the promotion system, you are appointed to one of the leagues. The structure I keep talking about is a structure where you move up, just like a pyramid. The number of opportunities reduce, because ultimately at the top you've got FIFA, then you've got the Premier League, then the Championship and Football League, then you've got the Conference and the power leagues, then you've got the feeder leagues and the contributory leagues into those. That's your route to progress if you want to make it to the very top, so consequently, when you get to a certain level you are appointed to a league, and therefore you will do the games. You have no choice where you're appointed to as a referee.
Does a referee officiate some teams more than others?
Referees don't normally officiate some teams more than other. It's in the interests of both the league and the clubs to give a referee a share of games, because if you gave a referee a particular club who was a poor marker, shall we say, too many games in a season and they didn't like him on the first game, he could suffer from a low mark every time he goes. I had a spell as a referee's secretary of a Sunday league years ago when I first started. It really opened my eyes: one club, if they won and thought the referee had a good game, they'd give him 6 or 7 and if they lost he'd get 3 or 4. You only need to get one 3 or 4 in a season. It's very hard to get up there where a lot of clubs would give 8, 9 or 10 if they think a referees had a good game. So referees do tend to get the games spread. Obviously, with the Premier League - when you've only got 20-22 select referees - you're going to get the same club a lot at that level because the number of officials and the number of games is significantly reduced.
Does a referee choose his assistants?
The assistants are appointed by the appropriate league, not the referee. Generally, they tend to work in teams and so the league will put people together and see if they can work together. They like to keep officials at the very top level in teams.
Does a referee get a salary?
A referee gets what we call a match fee in local football, but of course, as he goes up the ladder and progresses, because he's travelling for the fee, more senior leagues start to pay expenses as well. The Premier League people - the select group, as I call them - are mostly full time and they get a retainer, a match fee and expenses. That will include a meal allowance as well as travel expenses, and a hotel allowance if they stop in a hotel overnight. Football league guys will get the same as that, and as you come down the leagues - Conference, etc. - the expenses become less high.
How much can a successful referee earn?
At top level, if you take a FIFA referee, you only used to get an expense allowance when you did a European game, but now they get a match fee as well. For example, a FIFA guy, I reckon, getting average games abroad, would probably get in excess of a £100,000 salary. The premier league guys could get anything from £50,000 to £100,000. I would say that the football league referees could get £260-270,000, if they're doing 20 games that's £5,500 plus travel. If you get to the very top group of referees, it's a very lucrative career now.
Do referees' performances get assessed?
When referees are on the way up, they are assessed by local assessors at county level. It's their marks plus their club marks that determine their promotion. As referees get up to the senior leagues, they are assessed on their assessor's reports. When you get to the football league and the premier league, referees are assessed on every game and there's somebody there who will report on them on every game and mark them, and mark them quite harshly. If I missed a blatant, obvious penalty in the very first minutes of the game, I'd be really marked down and not get much more than fifty or sixty out of a hundred. It is quite severe really. Referees meet set guys, too, about once or twice a month at Northampton on a Wednesday and they have one-to-one interviews with the sport psychologist. They also review videos of their games. They point out if there's a trend appearing in their game that needs to be improved on and so forth. They'll stay there and they'll fitness train until the Friday after the game. Refereeing is quite intensive at the very top.
What happens if a referee gets a bad assessment?
If you get an assessment as a referee that says that you didn't do very well, you're taught to look at the assessment. If it's a one-off in a season and you got really good assessments otherwise, it may be a matter of opinion, or it may be just one of those days. What you have to do is be honest with yourself because you should always critically examine yourself after a game on your performance. If there's a trend appearing in the assessments, that you're doing the same thing, that you're showing lack of authority game after game, then you've got to start saying, "I'm going to pay attention to this. I'm going to perhaps establish my authority a bit quicker in a game and set the benchmark." You've got to use the assessments as a positive means to improve and get even higher up the scale of refereeing.
Do you have to buy your own kit?
When you first start refereeing, you do have to buy your own kit. But once you get to a certain level, the sponsorships come in for the associations, or the football league might get somebody supplying their kit. You normally get your referee kit supplied when you get to a certain level. I'm not sure about whether the Conference supply their referees. In parks and on your way up, you have to buy your own kit.
Do you have to stay fit?
I think it's essential to stay fit as a referee. When I used to go around talking to the associations, I used to say, "Look, it's no use just saying, 'I'm getting on the football league line tomorrow or the conference next week, and start training.' You need to get into training as a habit. It's got to become habitual." I think if you're fit - it's a cliche I know - a fit body follows a fit mind. If you can get there to see the incidents, you've got more chance of getting the decision right than if you're struggling to get there. I always say to people: make sure you are fit and step up your fitness as you go on through the refereeing system, and the cumulative fitness should stand you in good stead if you do get to a higher level as a referee. Then you have to start doing a more demanding fitness schedule.
