I've taught Grade 7 upgrade courses I'm fully aware of what the intent was. It's usually a class full of 40-60 year old refs that don't even do amateur games but want to be cool and tell people they are Grade 7s. I'm all for providing some amateur specific instruction to referees working those games, but having an entire grade geared for just that? Impractical.
"Extensive program reviews, referee focus groups, task forces and committees identified a need for a clearer pathway for referees striving to reach the highest level, standardized requirements and procedures as well as greater support for the 97 percent of referees who officiate matches at the Grassroots level." When you parse the sentence (the crap one actually remembers from HS), you'll notice that the conjunction "as" joins two independent clauses. Hence, you could also rewrite the sentence into two and get the exact same message across. Doesn't read as well, but it removes the illusion that the first part is truly connected to the second. "Extensive program reviews, referee focus groups, task forces and committees identified a need for a clearer pathway for referees striving to reach the highest level, standardized requirements and procedures." "As well as greater support for the 97 percent of referees who officiate matches at the Grassroots level." Damn, makes the Grassroots guys look like an afterthought. Further, how does lumping competitive youth soccer referees and adult amateur referees into the same group help support them? The expectations for those games are completely different. To claim that one can take a "New ref" course and is then qualified to officiate a Men's Open league is ludicrous. Whether you want to say that Grade 7 doesn't truly exist because they scrapped the fitness test or lessened the requirements, it was a Grade that served a purpose in places that had true amateur leagues. Most of the Grade 7's I know work adult games, sanctioned or not, in addition to youth games. Homie, we could make this the slogan for this forum.
Technically, that last part isn't an independent clause; it's not a complete sentence by itself. The writers of the sentence were trying to use "as well as" as a coordinating conjunction joining the three things needed: a "clearer pathway," "standardized requirements," and "greater support." I agree. Realistically, assignors need to know who can handle a higher level game (whether that's adult, or top-level youth games, or whatever else may apply in a particular area). You can call it a separate grade if you want, or you can just let assignors figure it our based on whatever information they can get.
I actually think that this is a good idea. Most new referees struggle with getting the best angle to see the play and also use their AR's effectively. So teaching Grade 8 referees a DSC is a good start. Once the new referees becomes comfortable with it he/she can get creative and do what works best for him/her. I remember when I started out I had no clue how to position myself on the pitch and I missed a lot of AR flags. Once I got to regionals I was taught some other tools to help me develop and it was eye opening. But there is no way I could have been able to use those new tools a year before. I just wasn't ready. When I got my State badge I leaned more tools on positioning and borrowed a lot from National guys that I was starting to work with. Hell I'm still learning new techniques and always looking for a better angle.