Ambitious referees looking to progress towards senior adult football have been urged by Essex County FA Senior Referee Development Officer, James Lisher, to consider applying for the latest Promotion Scheme by Thursday 1st March.

Keen match officials currently at Levels 7, 6 or 5 of the ladder are welcome to apply for promotion via the simple form which can be completed at www.essexfa.com. Lisher, who works alongside Lukas Wood in the Referees Department at the County Office in Chelmsford, is looking forward to seeing the upward trend of applications continuing.

“Over the last five seasons, we have seen a considerable increase in the number of promotion applications being made,” he reported. “This hasn’t been a surprise to us owing to the increase in the number of referees attending our development sessions and wanting to progress through to the senior adult game. I’d encourage any Level 7 and 6 referee interested in developing their own game to give it a go and to get involved.”

Each promotion scheme has its own respective criteria with the entry level, 7 to 6, requiring promotion officials to attend a development workshop, complete a laws of the game assessment paper and referee a minimum number of games throughout the season, at which observations on their performances will be carried out on a minimum of three occasions.

The second promotion level, 6 to 5, would then look at raising the expected performance criteria, looking at refining the referee’s technique through the Referee Coaching Scheme and CORE (Centre of Refereeing Excellence) programme. In addition to the Level 7 criteria, they’d also be operating as an assistant referee on a County Senior League and/or a Supply League.

Finally, the Level 5 to 4 scheme requires officials to complete an FA fitness test prior to being able to progress onto the performance observations. Level 5 to 4s will also need to attend The FA’s regional development session and undertake a minimum of 20 games as a referee within the senior level of the county, plus ten games as an assistant on a Supply League.

All applications need to be submitted for review online by 9:00am on Thursday 1st March. Click here for further details. Application is simple, and can be completed in five minutes. For more information on grassroots Essex refereeing click here, follow @EssexCountyFA on Twitter and search for ‘EssexFootball’ on Facebook.