Since the first few weeks of the season, red cards have dropped off dramatically. From a peak of 28 in week two, this week there were only six red cards handed out. It's still too early to tell, but it appears that all of our hard work is paying off.
That being said, there is still a lot of disorganization in the system. The paperwork, to put it simply, is a mess. The forms being used do not appear to be universal. I'm not certain if some officials are using reports from prior seasons, or if there are a variety of options, but from what I've seen, there are three different match report forms. I had to get familiar with each of these on my own, as there's been no real training. Weekly, there are at least two or three games where the official neglects to send his supplemental report. These were easy to miss at first, considering logic told me that if there were no supplemental report, there must not have been any red cards given. I found out rather embarrassingly that that isn't the case. At current, I must review every match report first, to see if a red card was given, then search for the supplemental report, which could have come in as a separate email days later. If I cannot find such a report, I advise Paul, who contacts the official. To complicate matters, these supplemental reports come in via different formats. Some are in typed in editable word (my favorite), some are in PDF, and some are hand written and sent as a picture from the official's cell phone. The pictures must be opened and saved in Paint.
One official simply sends an email, and rather than completing a report, simply outlines the incident in the body of the email. Searching for these reports can be akin to finding a needle in a haystack. The officials clearly need more training.
And of course, there's still the issue of timing. Though Sunday should mark the end of the match week, and logic would dictate that completing red card reporting on Sunday would be ideal, in reality these reports can come in days, even a week late. They trickle in throughout a two-week period, which forces me to work on these reports multiple nights per week. They system is wrought with inefficiencies. I'm going to design a smarter system, and hopefully have it incorporated next season. Once I have streamlined the leagues processes, we can proceed with training the officials.
That being said, there is still a lot of disorganization in the system. The paperwork, to put it simply, is a mess. The forms being used do not appear to be universal. I'm not certain if some officials are using reports from prior seasons, or if there are a variety of options, but from what I've seen, there are three different match report forms. I had to get familiar with each of these on my own, as there's been no real training. Weekly, there are at least two or three games where the official neglects to send his supplemental report. These were easy to miss at first, considering logic told me that if there were no supplemental report, there must not have been any red cards given. I found out rather embarrassingly that that isn't the case. At current, I must review every match report first, to see if a red card was given, then search for the supplemental report, which could have come in as a separate email days later. If I cannot find such a report, I advise Paul, who contacts the official. To complicate matters, these supplemental reports come in via different formats. Some are in typed in editable word (my favorite), some are in PDF, and some are hand written and sent as a picture from the official's cell phone. The pictures must be opened and saved in Paint.
One official simply sends an email, and rather than completing a report, simply outlines the incident in the body of the email. Searching for these reports can be akin to finding a needle in a haystack. The officials clearly need more training.
And of course, there's still the issue of timing. Though Sunday should mark the end of the match week, and logic would dictate that completing red card reporting on Sunday would be ideal, in reality these reports can come in days, even a week late. They trickle in throughout a two-week period, which forces me to work on these reports multiple nights per week. They system is wrought with inefficiencies. I'm going to design a smarter system, and hopefully have it incorporated next season. Once I have streamlined the leagues processes, we can proceed with training the officials.