Middlesbrough and York City help local referees keep on officiating.
215 Referees have already registered for next season in the North Riding area thanks to the North Riding County FA, York City Football Club and Middlesbrough Football Club.
A major goal of The FA’s four-year strategy is to retain and recruit enough referees to ensure that every match has a qualified official. Around 20 per cent of all matches played are unofficiated but thanks to the two professional clubs in the County, North Riding has already gone a long way to ensuring that all football from the TJFA to the York Leeper Hare league will have a qualified referee.
York City offered every renewing referee a pair of tickets to see The FA Trophy Finalists in action at the Kit-Kat Crescent against Eastbourne whilst Middlesbrough donated ten pairs of tickets to their home game against Fulham, both games on 18 April.
Both clubs know the importance of recruiting and retaining referees to the game at grassroots level and their generosity will help to improve the standard of the game for everyone involved, whether it’s playing junior football through to Sunday league football.
Ross Joyce, Referee Development Officer for the North Riding County FA, appreciates the support offered from the top of the game to benefit everyone at grassroots and said: “York City and Middlesbrough have gone out their way to give something back to football.
“Retaining referees is just as important as recruiting new ones, and with the help of our top two clubs we have re-registered over 200 referees – almost two-thirds of last year’s total.
“Referees go out there each week to ensure that all football is properly officiated and hopefully this reward will let them know that they are doing a great job.”
North Riding FA is well on course to achieve its goals for the four-year strategy and with the success of Respect in some of their leagues too, Refereeing is certainly on the up.
If you have any questions related to refereeing, please do not hesitate to contact us by emailing FAMOA@TheFA.com or by calling 020 7745 4651.
If you'd like to become a referee register your interest by clicking here and a local County FA Referee Development Officer will contact you.
