Momentous Decision

I made a selfish decision tonight.

I've taken action in the past concerning someone who happens to be the best friend of someone else who is very important in the Sunday League in which I officiate and they are influencing some else so much so that I will never get a game in the top division of that league this season ... with me so far?

Bearing in mind this is the league in which I have "cut my teeth" over the last 4 seasons my decision may seem a little (lot!) selfish and may at some point deny two teams the benefit of a referee BUT for the first time in my refereeing career I am looking after number one ... no, not a goalkeeper, but myself. It will cost me a lot of money as I do reasonably well from match fees on Sundays, £20 per weekend, but I need to prepare properly ...

Some background dear readers to explain what has happened in that last 24 (27?) hours. All referees need to have confidence in their own ability and decision making, I think we take that as read. Some referees take this confidence to the Nth degree and come across as arrogant out on the field of play, some have the skill and ability to back up this over bearing confidence and others don't. Personally I put myself somewhere in the "I like to think I'm good and can always come back with justification for anything I've done" camp ... some see this as arrogant - I don't!

Anyway a couple of weeks ago I put myself forward as a potential candidate for promotion to the next level of refereeing - level 4 - Supply League Referee/Contributory League Assistant. Last night I attended the first meeting which officially acknowledged my aspirations and it was set out for me (and everyone else) what we need to do to get there and what is expected from them should they be successful and achieve their promotion.

In basic terms we need to get in the required number of games in this season, refereeing on Saturday afternoons, manage our correspondence efficiently and pass the (dreaded) fitness test in March for the County FA and again for the FA in June/July time by running at least 2500m in 12 minutes and completing 2x50 sprints in 7.5 seconds each. That's to get there! To stay there we need to be very good referees on the field, demonstrate the necessary level of commitment by taking games every Saturday (unless we have a good reason) and keep our correspondence up to date with Closed dates and acknowledged appointments, etc.

Now as readers will know I started this blog intending to document my trek towards a fitness test, which I will pass, but starting from a very low point of being probably least 4 stones (25kg?) over weight and with bad knees, particularly the right one, I had a long way to work. So far so good with around 2 stones (12Kg) lost and my overall fitness breaking (last 20 years personal best) records most weeks I am making progress, but with 4 months to the County fitness test, the work has got to begin in earnest. My problem is that I can't train properly 3 times each week if I am knackered from doing two games each weekend.

So to my selfish decision, I have to referee when I need to meet the promotion criteria (Saturdays) and to allow me to train on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays or at least do some proper recovery work on Sundays. So I am going to drop my Sunday League games unless I get a top division game and I will continue to keep my dates open for County and District Cup games, but other than that, Sundays are going to be for swimming with my son and doing some silly deep water striding - hey it was good enough for Graham Poll and Pierluigi Collina, so it's good enough for me!