Jason Wright

Melbourne Victoria Australia

First AskTheRef.com Appearance:6/23/2009

First Year Licensed:1999
License Level:Level 3

Association:Football Federation Victoria
Additional Associations:

I started playing when I was just an ankle biter, about 7 or so. As years went on I was eventually a teenager, and like most teenagers I knew everything there was to know about everything, and I was utterly convinced that I could do a better job than the referees in my area. A colleague had already started refereeing, and when he showed me the fees I had made up my mind - I was to be a referee.

I still remember my first game, nervous as a pig at a butcher and felt like I had no idea what I was doing. Under 8's it was.....and one team forfeited. Great start, huh?

I won't be ashamed to admit that the main reason I took up refereeing was for the money. I loved the game, but it was the money that got me into refereeing. However, I still wanted to do a good job on the field. As I began to work up through the age groups, with this came the inevitable increase in yelling from the sidelines that comes with the older youth grades. I realised that this was going to be directly linked to my performance - and if I continuously strive to better myself as a referee, then this should make my time on the pitch a lot easier. I realised that even if money was my main motivation, that still wasn't a justification for sub-par performance; no matter what my reason for being on the field was, I owed it to the players to be the best referee I could.

However, I also recognised a shift in motivation: I loved what I was doing! I wanted to be the best referee I could be because I wanted to get as high as I could in the refereeing ranks! So I begain to seek out further education - and that's when I came across this site, and every night I would read up on the latest questions and answers, and even post a few myself.

As time went on I began to recognise a few problems with refereeing - in particular, the lack of education; too many referees were taught the very basics in the course, then thrown onto the field with no further education or support. Through local refereeing sites I gradually realised that this was a pretty widespread problem - though fortunately my association was seeking to drastically improve the situation. I realised that, with a few years of experience plus the additional knowledge gained on sites such as this I was in a good position to help these less experienced referees to they could perform better, have an easier time on the field, and service the game more effectively. Additionally this would reflect positively upon referees as a whole if fewer referees will making mistakes due to a lack of education. I decided to do my bit to fix the problem, and took on a mentoring role as well as becoming an inspector.

I also tried to take this approach onto the local football forums, passing on my experiences online to help where I could. Hence, it is with pride that I have joined the AskTheRef team, as this gives me the opportunity to put something back into this site as well as further pass on my experience. It also gives me a fantastic opportunity to learn from the other panel members - this comes at a great time in my career where moving to the city of Melbourne sees me refereeing at a higher level than I ever have, with definite opportunities for progression. These, coupled with trying my hand at the peculiar indoor code called 'Futsal' makes it a very exciting year of refereeing!

Read answers posted by Referee Wright