At the April meeting we had the pleasure of the company of Ron Leow, a founder member of the Sutton Society, who has been living and working in Germany for some time. Ron gave a very interesting talk about refereeing in Germany and showed us some of the paperwork he had to deal with, which looked impressive and it probably was to those who speak German.  Here is a brief synopsis of Ron's talk.


After 18 months in Germany Ron was asked to referee a game for a friend in the "Freizeitliga" who do not usually have qualified referees.
In Germany, after qualifying, referees must register with a society and club who pay for thier kit (not boots, whistle etc).  Most referees wear yellow, red or green.  Ron was quized as to why he wore black and white.

The Amateur game is divided into five divisions.
Kreisliga A, Kreisliga B, Kreisliga C, Verbandsliga, which is equivalent to the Combined Counties etc. and Landesliga, equivalent to Isthmian and higher.

Ron was surprised that most German refs. were not smartly turned out, they would arrive with dirty boots with shirt and shorts not pressed or folded.
Club assistant referees have very limited power, they are only expected to indicate ball out of play.  The offside decisions are always left to the ref.  All levels must provide the referee, before the game, with team sheets and a passbook.  The ref also has a pass with a photo which allows entrance to any match, except Cup, Premier or International matches, free of charge regardless of his/her level or length of service.

German refs. rely on red and yellow cards much more than British referees.  They rarely play an advantage and the crowds feel cheated if they don't get thier share of free kicks.  Around 30% of pitches are Astroturf with some ash pitches which have no lines marked.  Only goalposts and posts about one metre from the pitch border to indicate the boundary of the playing area!

Promotion is much the same as in England, a mixture of assessing and marking.  Kreisliga A, B, and C - the assessor will sometimes come into the changing room before the game but always after. The Verbandliga and above, the assessor will always come in before and after the match and sometimes give the referee an indication of his mark.  The referee marks his assistants.
To gain promotion a ref must average 43 out of 50 about 8 out of 10, with any one mark not less than 39.

Dave Churchley - Ron Leow