Referee a priviledge but if taken away?

[Grizzlierbear]

How is a referee excluded from being assigned games?
What must transpire for an assignor not to acknowledge a referee the privilege of officiating? Is there a procedure in place to track and make such decisions.
What recourse would a referee have if excluded?
A single incident, complaints, witnessed and written material, can simply a collection of stories over time be sufficient?
Do you send written warnings or in person verbal meetings?
Is a referee entitled to be assessed by independent parties?
Is there legal precedents or as a contract employee there are no actions for a referee to consider?
Are games rated for a certain level and only referees with clearance can request those matches or be assigned those matches?
If a colleague has a poor attitude or feels ostracized how can he be helped or is it not our concern?

[Claymore]

Sounds like there's a story behind this. Care to share?

[whipple]

While it will not address all of your quesitons, since most of this is highly situational, some of what you are asking, or at least the guidelines to how assignors approach such issues are covered in the Assignor's handbook.

http://www.massref.net/handbook.pdf

Sherman

[kevbrunton]

In our association, we have a single assignor for all high school games. Then there are multiple assignors for different levels and locations for the USSF games.

At the higher level games, the assignors know the referees and also go watch games to make sure they are being handled properly.

At the lower level games, I'm not sure how they would handle removing someone from the referee pool.

For the high school games, I know 3 or 4 referees have been removed from the referee pool (i.e., no longer received any assignments). Generally, it is because other referees have reported them as not having what it takes. Most of the time these guys (or gals) are NFHS referees only and picked up soccer to have something to do in the fall. They do softball or some such thing in the spring. They are unwilling to join the USSF ranks where they'll get some actual training and mentoring. So they get dropped.

[nsa]

In the US, all assignors are supposed to be certified by US Soccer. Theoretically, there would be someone higher up the food chain to talk to.

Given the referee shortages, someone really has to PO the assignor badly to be given no games. ;)

That said, some leagues have a list of referees that they want to have for their games so you may get assignments, but no the ones you really want (or need for upgrade).

[jc508]

The largest league in our area welcomes compliments and complaints regarding referees. If several complaints from different games and parties are received by the league, they ask that the ref be assessed. If complaints continue to be received on that referee, the league will instruct the assignor to not assign that referee to any league games.

The league is very supportive of our referees. They pay for assessments to be done for the refs to help improve the quality of the referees.

I know of one ref who was advised that he could not ref in that league. The following year, after being assessed, the ref petitioned the league and was allowed to once again ref on a probationary status.

Our high school association will investigate complaints and, if there is some merit to the complaint, deal with them by fining the official, issuing a letter of reprimand or having them assessed or counseled.

Since refs are independant contractors, the referee associations can not restrict a ref from doing games in a particular league, but the league as the employer has the option to use a ref or not. The assignor as an agent of the league would have this option. The only recourse for the ref would be to petition the league for an opportunity to explain and be allowed to officiate in that league again.

Just my opinion.

[Statesman]

There are so many leagues out there, not being assigned for one is no problem. There is more than one league around here being assigned by somebody completely inept in their own understanding of the game who I will not work for. It can be inconvenient for travel sometimes but well worth having a large area and multiple assignors work for you.