Colorado vs Toronto (CCL)

While I can't vouch for the quality of the Saint Kitts domestic league, he's done enough international matches for me to think he's more than an average ref.

http://www.footballdatabase.eu/football.arbitres.kimbell.ward.9790.en.html

 

Well, let's not go crazy.

The second part of your statement is 100% true. But the bolded part should probably just say "Because he is the best referee in St. Kitts & Nevis."

There are plenty of referees around the world who attain FIFA status without having what could reasonably be called "a really wide body of solid work." There's an element of a quota system, with every federation having some slots to fill. If a federation wants one of its referees to have FIFA status and that individual can pass the fitness test, there's not much standing in the way other than a veto from the confederation (which won't happen to smaller federations due to political reasons). That's not a judgment on Kim Ward's merits either way; we just shouldn't fall into the trap that FIFA status automatically means something about ability and resume, other than it meaning one is a FIFA qualified referee that year.

 

Well, to be both fair and clear, I agree with what I feel is @akindc's more important point here. A mistake here or there or a seemingly "off" match isn't really enough to ask "any idea why this guy is a FIFA referee?"

 

Both, essentially. But the verbs "take" and "trim" maybe aren't the best words. They completely overhauled the process.

There were too many National Referees. There has been several different evolutions of what it meant to be an NR, really ever since MLS came onto the scene. But up until maybe six or seven years ago, there was pretty much a path for any referee to make it NR if s/he had the backing of their state and met the objective criteria (game count, number of assessments, fitness, etc.) listed in the administrative handbook. That started to change with the federation playing a more hands-on role in the selection of NRs. And that hands-on role involved the federation saying certain referees just weren't good enough or had been an NR too long. Or that there were too many CRs (or not enough ARs). So fewer invitations to National Camp started to go out. The size of the NR pool got cut by a decent size for 2015 and then significantly so for 2016.

The federation tried to take control of National Candidacy (which was really a state thing) during this time period--maybe 2013 or 2014. There would normally be dozens or maybe even a hundred NCs in a given year. The federation thought this was stupid given overall desire to reduce the NR pool, so took control of who got to be an NC. It reached the point that Grade 5 was turned into only National Candidates and, I believe, there were a total of 12 Grade 5s in the country one year. That has changed again, with Grade 5 being a limited grade that states can promote someone to; it's essentially a grade that says "hey Chicago, you should look at (or keep looking at) this referee." But there's really no official NC status or and no longer a declaration of candidacy like there was in the past. No one is officially a "National Candidate" anymore, though there are obviously certain Grade 5s who are being much more heavily looked at than others.

It's a very opaque and subjective system. Many referees have a problem with that. Some deservedly complain that they get overlooked, others who never should have been at that level have sour grapes. It's by no means a perfect system. But the pool needed to be culled and that's been accomplished. Where things go in the next few years as PRO needs to do a better job of identifying and promoting talent will be interesting to watch.