Soccer thread for people who know very little about association football

Sports
, , , ,
21

Why?

1 Like
22

insert IT Crowd video here

23

I can bore you with qualifications, hierarchy and career profession of football referees if you so desire, @ma0sm.

24

i have invited theo to participate in this thread

25

Hi @anon67149139 haven’t seen you around for a while, thanks for returning. Your comment makes me think that there’s a lot to this subject. Any way of telling me the interesting bits, no worries if not?

26

As a player, wouldn’t it just piss you off to be brought on with a minute to go? Only there to waste time, tbh. Could easily escape a shower, having to change, etc. Could have been shovelling chicken goujons and lime&soda down ya gob an hour earlier.

1 Like
27

This goes against the spirit of this thread

28

If they only play for two minutes and don’t even break a sweat, do you think they bother having a shower, or just put their regular clothes back on straight away?

1 Like
29

When you changed your avatar to Manchester United, is that because they’re the Coldplay of football (or something like that) and you’re on the wind up or are you a genuine fan? I saw it, and wondered, and now have a space where I can ask.

30

A lot of people get appearance fees. So get paid more for actually getting on the pitch

1 Like
31

Watching the game now actually. Blaaaady 8 West Ham

32

Blaaaady 8 West Ham

Please refrain from comments like this in this thread because I don’t know what it means.

2 Likes
33

U wot?

1 Like
34

Oh right this isn’t the football thread.

2 Likes
35

No, no it is not.

36

I’ll try and be brief. (In English football…)

You can qualify as a football referee from 14 (might be 16 now tbh). The levels go from 10 to 1 (though a level 10 is “declared inactive”, 9 is a trainee, and 8 an under-18), before becoming an elite/select group (the people you see in the Premier League and higher).

A “linesman” is a fully qualified referee. You tend to progress up through the levels from your local parks stuff by marks from the clubs each match, plus being assessed by officials from your county’s football association a handful of times a year. Once you hit level 6/5 (depending on ability, age, brown-nosing) you’ll tend to be invited onto the senior leagues in your area as an assistant.

What happens from there is that you tend to be a lino on the league ABOVE the one you referee on, and all being good you can work your way up the ladder from there.

Once you hit level 3 there’s a league table of officials, and it’s where it really filters into whether you want to be a referee or an assistant (this is really simplifying it). There’s no hierarchy, but some people will turn down promotions to “just” stay as a lino, and then progress as an elite lino.

At the highest rungs on the ladder, the guys running the line will tend to stick with the same ref as a team of 3. Obviously now the “5th officials” (the useless twats on the goal line) and Video Assistants have confused this a little but thats the basics of it.

2 Likes
37

hi @ma0sm, what are your thoughts on John Terry?

38

Heard the name a lot a few years back, people didn’t seem to like him

39

people are silly

1 Like
40

Thanks for that, didn’t know any of that before