New season, new referee team, new initiatives

Touch is growing rapidly, all across Europe, with England leading the way in terms of numbers of players, tiers of events, grassroots development and elite rankings.

To continue this growth, we need to ensure that our referee development is on the same trajectory. 

To this end, England Touch are looking ahead to safeguard this, by implementing a number of schemes to support the development of referees, the staffing of elite club competitions and encouraging individuals to officiate. 

We’ve been busy in the off season devising a refreshed referee structure and recruiting a team to take England Touch referee development and opportunities to the next level. As part of this, we’ve recently appointed Nathan Thompson and Andrew Martin to the #OneEngland family, with another exciting announcement to come following the World Cup.

With a new team comes new ideas and England Touch is now launching the Referee Nomination Subsidy and Inducement scheme.

The purpose of this is to:

• Determine the eligibility, selection criteriaand potential financial subsidy received by referees who wish to be selected as part of the England Referee Squad at major national and international Touch tournaments
• Establish ranking for selectionat international tournaments for both eligible and ineligible referees
• Work as an encouragement for refereesto support elite club Touch
• Ensure suitability and process for the proposedof distributing any subsidy reflects the contribution of individuals towards England Touch elite player development

This document does not affect any other events nor referees who are not looking to attend events as part of the England Touch representation. 

CLICK HERE to download the new policy.

There are still a number of positions available in the referee committee, take a look on our website for more info byCLICKING HERE.