BENCHMARK February 2018 issue

Hope that you and your families have an enjoyable holiday period

Make sure your New Year resolutions are achievable…set your goals for the refereeing season

From all at York RA

MARK HALSEY discusses incidents from last week’s mid-week games

DERMOT GALLAGHER discusses incidents from last weekend’s games

EPL appointments and stats for 9-10^th December 2017

PAUL GARDNER: Pro-defense bias continues to mar English refereeing

EPL TIES with most combined cards

Unlikely occurrence in Brazil’s Serie A – excellent incident for discussion

2017 Referee of the Year awards for Steinhaus and Brych

PAUL REJER: Discusses ‘Offside position’ – from week 16

HOWARD WEBB: Satisfied with VAR rollout but eyeing improvement

Why referees are rarely ‘demoted’ or ‘backed’ after high profile error

ABUSED REFEREES, dirty players and research that leaves too much to be desired

FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 candidate referee seminar

MARK HALSEY : Kilimanjaro diary – Days 4-7

BJORN KUIPERS: Confidence is the key to success in refereeing

AUSTRALIA: VAR controversy – and it still takes too long in trials

CANADA: Seventeen match officials named to FIFA international lists

NEW ZEALAND: Matt Conger off to 2018 FIFA World Cup finals in Russia

SPAIN: Female AR reveals abuse she received

MARK HALSEY: Another honest review of last weekend’s games
 
FIFA WORLD CUP 2018 – 36 referees chosen for finals in Russia
 
IMPROVING THE LAWS OF THE GAME
 
VAR use has been largely positive
 
HOWARD WEBB would want VAR as a World Cup referee
 
ANDY TOWNSEND: Fast-tracking could provide perfect route for so many
 
PAUL REJER: Discusses ‘Offside jigsaw’ – from week 14
 
MLS: PRO announces Western Conference two-leg championship appointments
 
OFFICIALS for the FIFA WORLD CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP 2017, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 6-16^th December
 
CAF Confederation cup final officials, two legs
 
AFC and CONCACAF to have referee exchanges
 
ROB HARRIS: Valuable advice on positioning at set pieces with and without assistants
 
JAKE COLLIN: “I’m only the AR today” – true quote – how ARs become part of the match-day team
 
RED CARD decision reversed in bizarre clash…..

………and is rescinded
 
PAUL TREVILLION: World’s greatest sports artist – Limited Edition Prints and Artist Proofs
 
HONG KONG referees learning from the best
 
ITALY : VAR to be introduced next season
 
SCOTLAND : Craig Thomson to referee the Betfred cup final, Celtic v Motherwell, Sunday 26^th November, kick-off 3pm

24 New Trainee Referees

Following the recent course at Poppleton JFC (ended 8 Oct) there are now 24 trainee referees; congratulations to all from York RA. It is hoped to see you at meetings to gain even more knowledge as well as some interesting guests

15 of the new trainee refs are from the York area (mostly U18; except John and Simos)

They have been allocated mentors from York RA (11 no) and will be doing their early games soon

Happy Whistling

BENCHMARK February 2017 Issue No 67

I have started posting many Law amendments on York RA Facebook, to make it easier for you all.

I have posted Laws 1-3 and will continue over the coming weeks.

A Word and pdf download (including a printing/copying version) are available on the IFAB website, as well as a presentation of the key Law amendments.

Or for a summary of all the Laws go to the York RA website.

For the York RA facebook page click here.

For those of you who missed the summarised version at our April meeting, I will be discussing some amendments at our May/September meetings.

Extract from recent email sent to referees by Colin Atkinson:

The Management Committee have been getting grumbles and complaints from Clubs about the state of some changing facilities they are having to use especially in the lower Divisions of the league.  The League has strict requirements about facilities and will enforce these if we are informed of problems. It is however sometime difficult for teams to complain about each other for fear of causing “bad blood” and problems when they play  each other again. Could I therefore ask you, as neutral observers, to let Pete Gibson and I know of any  issues with the changing facilities offered to you and, if possible, the teams when you are at games.  A photo from your phone would be a useful illustration.  We have been inspecting facilities of Premier & 1st Division clubs in line with the FA National League Step 7 requirements and instructions/recommendations have been issued to certain clubs.  There is a sliding scale of facility requirements and for your information I have attached an extract from the League Rules.  Many of you already submit a match report via our League website but I have prepared another form (attached) to help you in this request. Please also use this form to report things like lack of barriers, poor pitch markings, lack of team sheets before the game etc. The Management Committee will take action against Clubs who breach the League Rules.  One other matter to mention is that, as a charter standard league, all teams must have a first aid kit.  Some time ago all teams were provided with 1st Aid kits but these seem to have been lost by many teams. The league is currently offering Clubs new 1st Aid kits. You can advise them to contact Pete Gibson.

Discipline and lack of it from players and club officials is the responsibility of the relevant District Football Associations so please make sure that you report misconduct via the Whole Game system. The League is not allowed by the FA to take action against players or clubs as they see it as their responsibility. However we do receive reports from the FA and there are certain rewards the league gives clubs for good behaviour and sanctions we can take for bad behaviour but we need the information, via the FA, and this comes from your discipline reports. Remember that if you are getting grief from a badly behaved team manager or a player then you can be sure that your colleagues have been subjected to the same. We all have different tolerance levels but consistency in dealing with the trouble makers will help everybody in the long term.

I hope that, with your help, we can maintain and improve standards.

I have attached the Referee’s Reporting Form so that you can use it for the above purposes.

The IFAB meet in Cardiff (4-6 March 2016) to approve the changes to the Laws.

There is a complete revision plus some actual changes to be discussed.

We will see the first major update for many years.

Watch this space for updates as we receive them.

The new IFAB website will be updated in due course.

Hopefully, the changes will be discussed in detail at our May (5th) meeting.

 York RA…….helping all referees.

24 New Level 9 Trainee referees have come out of the recent course in York.

They should be registering with the local leagues in order to fulfil Mod 4 and complete the minimum of 6 games; starting this weekend and through Feb/March.

All have been allocated Mentors for this period and beyond.

If you come across a new ref introduce yourself and make him welcome into the refereeing fraternity – and invite them to York RA meetings where they will have the opportunity to meet colleagues in an informal setting.

Many congratulations to Messrs Allam, Atkins, Barker, Boyle, Cates, Dickinson, Dunne, Everstead, Fleming, Foster, Fraser-Kraus, Gibson (2), Greenway, Hope, Marsh, McDaid, Moll, Penny, Raywood, Rix, Scholey, Shepherd and Turner.