Every serious association should try its utmost to have a much an efficient referee rostering system as possible. Unfortunately I have seen, and heard of, many occasions when the referees’ rosters (or appointments/nominations, as they are sometimes termed) were clearly built in a haphazard fashion without the necessary due consideration given.

This is a sad reality as, in my opinion, there results a great possibility of a lose-lose situation both for the referee himself and even for the assignor.

One may be asking why I am making such a fuss about referee rostering which some might believe is just a simple thing of allotting the games to be played amongst the referees.

I will try to explain some of the important facts that should be pondered on by the efficient game assignor.

It could be said that the most influential refereeing administrator is the one who makes the appointments. Therefore it is imperative to have either a responsible quality group of administrators or a highly talented and respected individual to formulate an effective refereeing roster. The latter’s tough job is to try to balance the numerous variables of rostering in order to reach an outcome that tries to satisfy all those involved, always keeping in mind that his main aim is that appropriately qualified referees are appointed to games.

To some a set of games are just that, a set of games. The stark reality is, however, that each game has the potential to be different from another and may demand a type of referees and not others. I believe this is maybe one of the crucial, if not the most crucial, factor underlying the referee assignments. A good assignor should allocate the most appropriate referee to the most appropriate game.

However, in its basics, a referee rostering system ensures that referees could have some organisation in their lives since they would be given an advance notification of their coming schedule. In the same time, the roster could be a good tool to reward or punish indirectly a referee.

The referee assignor has to look at various variables when trying to formulate a roster. One of the main factors is the availability of the referees where the norm is that few referees, especially those who are married and have a demanding full time job, would be available at all times. The time of the games also has a marked effect on the availability of referees as most referees would only be available at particular times on a particular day.

Just pondering on this solitary factor, one can easily start to understand the complexity of assigning what looks like being a simple roster.

The assignor will face a schedule with games to be played spread over a day. He will easily compute the number of referees and assistants who would be needed to service these games.

As stated previously, the quality, standard and significance (at different stages of the season, games become more or less important) of each game in the schedule will vary and this directly effects what referees are given what games.

It is a fact that the form of most referees fluctuates along a season. I fully expect that the better performing referees should be rewarded with more games and the best games (it is sad to hear of some assignors who treat rostering as a game of turns where games are juggled in turns between referees of different capabilities).

At the same time there may be certain personality mismatches where officials cannot be teamed up together due to their attitudes and character. I really hate to witness such incidents as I believe fully in comradeship but unfortunately some of us possess this unfortunate trait.

On the same wavelength, some referees work better with other referees, while some just cannot work with others, as mentioned above.

Another factor is that referees might have conflicts with certain teams or individuals. In my opinion one should not just immediately cut a line and stop assigning a referee to these teams. Much should depend on the individual referee’s character/personality and on the philosophy whether it is best to avoid conflict or to confront conflict in each separate case.

Another factor that the assignor faces is that sometimes he has to strive to develop new referees and as such will seek to strike a balance between experience and youth for the latter’s sake as they can learn from the veteran counterparts during game situations.

The availability of evaluators and inspectors will also affect the roster as referees have to be evaluated and assessed (at least a number of times a year).

Locally, the frequency of teams’ factor has to be, in the majority of cases, overlooked since most referees have to face the same teams week after week and have no fault if they become familiar with the teams.

At the end of all this, the assignor may, from time to time, face certain personal requests from individual referees which have to be catered for.

The retaining of officials is paramount. Repeated unpleasant experiences, particularly with inexperienced officials will result in a significant drop in numbers. An assigner must be so mindful of numerous variables when creating an officiating roster, as they can quickly crucify a referee and possibly lose him for good.

In fact one should avoid too many games (resulting in staleness and burnout), too many early games during the day and handing a too tough a game for a referee as this will load the referee with additional stress which he is unable to cope with.

A referee may easily be lost if he is not given better games as a reward for good performances or if he is not evaluated or assessed regularly (as he gets the impression that nobody cares).

Assignors must be so mindful of assigning the most appropriate referees to the most appropriate games and not exposing them to situations that could result in them not wishing to continue officiating. At the same time, the appointment officer/s should not be seen as showing favouritism and all should be treated equal.

I believe that this week’s article has shed clear light that appointing games is often a thankless task, but as you can see it requires considerable time, thought, skills, compassion, understanding and knowledge. All these attributes are really the key to an effective appointments schedule.

My message to each local referee is to think twice before blaming your appointments officer. Although he is human and as such can commit mistakes, it is sometimes very hard to stand in his shoes.