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Club Officials and players are asked to take careful note of the following Amendments to Red Card Reporting as issued by the Football Association.

Currently Referees across the game at all levels when dismissing a player from the field of play are required to write a detailed report of the offence when reporting the dismissal.

The purpose of this report is largely historic and relates to when Players were able to appeal a dismissal and attend a Personal hearing to challenge the report. The move at grassroots level from term based discipline to match based discipline prevented personal hearings for red card offences and was replaced with the wrongful dismissal process.

The requirement to report the detail of the dismissal is not necessary for the Wrongful Dismissal process that now applies at all levels of the game and in fact contributes to confusion as to the purpose of that process.

The ability to claim a Wrongful Dismissal applies where a Club can demonstrate that the decision to send off a player for the offence committed was obviously wrong.

Clubs often concentrate their submissions on perceived errors in the detail of the report rather than whether the decision to send off for the offence was or was not correct. The onus is on the Club to show that the referee was obviously wrong in the dismissal offence and where they cannot satisfy that burden any claim should fail.

It has therefore been agreed to amend the reporting process with effect from the start of the 2018-19 season to operate the same as reporting yellow card offences. This change will apply at all levels of the game.

Therefore, the referee is only required to report the red card offences as laid out in the laws of the game as follows:

Offences of S2 - Violent conduct will be categorised further with the following categories:

There will be no requirement to write any further details for dismissals. This will save the referees time in reporting and avoid supplying unnecessary detail surrounding the offence.

It should be noted that both MOAS and WGS Portal are being amended to permit this change.

Extraordinary Reports
Referees will still be required to write details surrounding extraordinary incidents in the following circumstances.

a. Where the dismissal offence has a more serious impact than the dismissal itself, the referee will be required to submit the dismissal offence as normal and then add a supplementary extraordinary report clarifying why the dismissal was exceptional. Such examples would be where the offence committed included an aggravated breach such as discriminatory language or behaviour (homophobic, sexist or reference to race/colour/religion/ethnicity etc.) or here there was a serious injury caused by the act of violent conduct.

b. Where further misconduct happened following the dismissal such as the player refusing to leave the field of play or committed other further acts of misconduct following the dismissal.

c. Where the offences committed were by non-playing staff or spectators.

Mark Ives
Head of Judicial Services
June 2018

The Greats Room at Preston North End FC was the venue for the pre-season meeting between the Lancashire Sunday League (LSFL) and its referees at which 38 officials were present.

The meeting was addressed by Neil Swarbrick, who has taken charge of 126 Premier Division games as well as the 2017 EFL Championship Play-off Final between Huddersfield Town and Reading at Wembley Stadium. He retired as a Premier League Select Group referee at the end of last season, but he will continue to work for PGMOL as VAR Manager for England.

Neil played in this league for many years for several clubs including Bamber Bridge Wanderers. His final game as a player was in the 1997 Presidents Cup Final which Bamber Bridge won. The following season he started refereeing and impressed us so much that he was appointed to referee the 1998 Presidents Cup Final.

New referee manager Mark Moore stressed the importance of maintaining the high standards set by the league and its match officials and the need to work towards a consistent approach wherever possible. League secretary Nikki Nye explained that the league was fully compliant with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

The LSFL is an FA Charter Standard League with four Open Age (Adult) divisions and three Youth (aged 15-18) divisions. If you are interested in refereeing in this league or would like more information about it, please contact Mark Moore.

Eamonn McNamara.

Bamber Bridge FC will host Preston North End FC at the Sir Tom Finney Stadium on Saturday 7th July 2018, kick off 3.00pm.

This will be an excellent opportunity to see the new faces at PNE whilst supporting our friends at Bamber Bridge. As usual, the club bar will be open selling a fine array of cask beers plus fine dining (pies, chips burgers etc) at May’s Place.

Eamonn McNamara.

The Annual General Meeting of the League held at Acregate Lane Labour Club on Tuesday 19 June saw the election of the following 21 new teams into the League:

Open Age (Adult) Section

New Youth Section Teams

Leyland BTR and Tarleton Corinthians Whites move from the Youth Section into the Open Age Section.

Premier division clubs Hunters FC and Ingol Rangers FC have amalgamated and will be known in future as Hunters & Ingol Rangers FC and Ashton Villa FC (also Premier Division) have changed their name to Ribbleton FC.

The make up of the various divisions will be announced later.

Eamonn McNamara.

For further details about the physical training sessions please contact Paul Marsden here.

Lancashire Sunday Football League is always happy to accept new referees to its list of officials. If you have any enquiries about refereeing on the League or would like to be added to the list of officials, please contact the League’s Referee Manager David McNamara here.

Mid Lancashire Football League operates on Saturday afternoons for Open Age clubs and they are also happy to accept new referees to its list of officials. If you have any enquiries about refereeing on the League or would like to be added to the list of officials, please contact the League’s Referee Secretary Tony Hawkes here.