Refereeing standards & development
The system for referee development in this country is one of the poorest in the world.
My friend is on level 3 of his refereeing journey, really interesting conversation a few months ago.
So as I understand it there are 7 levels they have to pass to get up to championship standard.
My mate has said that to pass the first four levels you have basically got to turn up on the day. You then get a review of your performance and as long as you are fit enough to go for the 90 you pass.
Now the issue with this that my mate has said is that decision making is not reviewed at any point, implementation of the laws of the game, obvious areas of improvement etc you get a half an hour conversation but nothing more....
You are not coached during your development by someone more experienced and any errors you have are carried through to level 4. You have no structure to develop into a professional.
The other issue is that those reviewing them are failed referees. I.e. those that did not make it to a professional standard.
Now you start to get reviewed in depth if you want to go through to level 5 and above. However, still no coaching game by game to develop. You have to pass extended written tests but if you're a bookworm its not difficult. You can then go to none league.
You then get reviewed over several games.... Again a 30 minute conversation. The issue here being that the standards are still very low and you guessed it, are reviewed (most of the time) by people who never made it themselves.
Your fitness is key and as long as there are no glaring issues you pass. You just have to justify a decision made even if you do. Most who get to this level pass as there is massive pressure to increase numbers of referees.
The same trajectory continues with the emphasis on fitness increasing. A high percentage of those who fail, fail because of fitness and become linesmen which is another issue entirely.
There is zero professional structure to training in the game with interaction between ref and a sporting body being minimal and superficial.
This contrasts to France say where experienced referee's coach younger referees with different experienced (older/retired referees) having weekly interaction with those looking to progress.
We are laughed at by those in Europe for the quality of refs here and considering we have the prem none were taken for the last world cup. Telling.
Really poor system and we wonder why they're so inconsistent when the best go to the prem.