Page 9 - Keynsham Town Ladies programme

KEYNSHAM TOWN LADIES 9

referees, but they are dispatched to other more distant games. This
is preposterous.

Thirdly is the fetish for fast tracking referees. Sadly, this seems to be
focused more on female rather than male referees. This is producing
a series of appointed referees with little experience, who perform
badly in many circumstances.

I lose count of the time when my senior players, who know what it
takes, groan ‘Oh no, not again’ when we get a fast track referee,
where often the assistants are far more experienced than the person
in the middle. Is that not a mad arrangement? It’s like putting a
trainee in the pilot’s seat and the pilot in the rear seat of the plane.

I take no pleasure in according such referees a low mark, but of
course, nobody from the FA ever reacts to a low mark, never
contacted by the powers that be; the whole system of marking
referees is a waste of time. We will in future ask the FA not to send
a referee again, where we have given a low mark and let’s see what
their response is.

Finally, as a club with a low level of discipline problems, we have been
exasperated by the discipline process at the County level. Gone are
the days of waiting in the corridor to be called by Helen Marchment
or Jennifer Gregory for the player or club volunteer to have a chance
to state their case and engage in a two way conversation. No, it is
just a written submission which is much easier to brush aside as the
accuser and the accused never meet to discuss the incident.

All in all the process has become wholly unhelpful and to the
detriment of those charged. In my opinion, such naked injustice has
to change, but nobody should hold their breath.