"How I feel like I'm back in school."

Jack was running as he spoke to Clattenberg next to him. Refereeing is a very physical profession, and there are even more runs in a game than players.

In the current Premier League, the general running distance of Premier League players is between 9,000 and 10,000 meters. Although the pace of the Premier League is fast, the players who exceed 10,000 meters are players with considerable physical strength. The players who can run 11,000 to 12,000 kilometers in a game are all players who are known for their physical strength. This is the Premier League now.

But Premier League referees generally run 10,000 meters. The average distance a Premier League referee travels is higher than that of a Premier League player.

It is precisely because of this that the English FA has a high level of physical demand for referees. So before each season, just like the players, the referees also need to have a training camp.

However, not all referees participated in the training camp. After all, if more than 20,000 referees from all over England were to participate in the training camp, the FA would not have the financial resources and the manpower. Therefore, those who can participate in the training camp are referees from the northern league and the southern league, that is, the league above the sixth division of England.

In this way, the number of referees is very small. At present, there are only 19 referees in the Premier League, and the total number of assistant referees is only 34. In other words, in the entire Premier League, the number of referees is only 53.

Among these referees, many referees also have some tasks, and there will be a certain number of low-level league enforcement tasks in a season. The most are enforced in League One and League Two. However, the real top referees in the Premier League will not go to the lower leagues to enforce the law.

Even some of the Premier League's assistant referees are referees in League One, League Two and League C. Therefore, the number of referees in League One, League B and League C is much smaller than expected. With the addition of the Anglo-African League, the Northern League, and the Southern League, the number of referees can only reach about 230.

Some of these older referees will not participate in the training camp. Because those old referees have slowly withdrawn from the front line, some of them specialize in the fourth referee and will not be the referee. Therefore, no more than 200 referees actually participated in the training.

Of course, Premier League referees have the face of Premier League referees, they are the elite of the refereeing world. The referees in the Premier League are directly involved in some of the rules of the refereeing industry in England, so they will not train with low-level referees like Jack.

"School? Haven't you graduated yet? ”

Clattenberg also ran and talked to Jack. Both of them are very young referees in the Northern League, plus they have worked together for a lot of time, so the personal relationship is quite good.

"That's right. Jack is still a student. You're supposed to be graduating soon? ”

Brett Vaughn ran next to him and kicked it out. Of the three, only Jack is still a college student and has not yet graduated.

"It's almost there, there are just over half a year left."

"But, Jack, I envy you. You're one step ahead of me. ”

Clattenberg looked at Jack with envy.

"yes, Jack. I'm also envious. ”

This is two months after the final of the promotion play-offs in the Anglo-African Union. A game that brings Jack more benefits than anyone could have imagined. The sensationality of that game was a little worse.

After all, it was only the final of the promotion play-offs of the Anglo-African League, and there were no waves for English football. No one in the fans cares about the game either. But this game is a big impact on the FA and the refereeing committee.

The referee committee and the technical committee are all focused on this game. It's really because in this game, the referee's performance was amazing, which directly determined the outcome of the game. Several bigwigs believe that such capable and decisive young referees should be cultivated.

Webb gets the most benefits. Webber was appointed by the FA as the head referee of the English Football League just five months after becoming an assistant referee in the English Football League with this game.

That is, from this moment on, Webb is already theoretically able to enforce all leagues in England except the Premier League. He is qualified to officiate in League One, League Two and League C.

This one is simply made of rockets. In the history of English football after the end of World War II, Webber was definitely the fastest rising English referee. At the age of twenty-five, he became the youngest referee in a football league.

Of course, Jack also received a huge benefit. As a young referee who has just been an assistant referee in the Northern League for ten months, Jack has been informed by the FA. Jack was appointed by the FA as an assistant referee for the English Football League.

Jack is now also eligible to work as an assistant referee in League One, League Two and League C. This is a great improvement in Jack's career, as many referees have been stuck in the Northern League, the Southern League, and the Anglo-African League for the rest of their lives, and they have not been able to referee in the English professional league for the rest of their lives. But Jack passed in less than a year.

"But I'm not qualified to officiate any of the games."

The speed of promotion is fast, but there are also problems. That is, Jack has no experience as a low-level referee, and has always been an assistant referee. This time, after becoming an assistant referee in the English Football League, he still has no referee qualifications. And it is estimated that it will be difficult to get the referee qualification in a short period of time. That's the problem.

"Yes, Jack."

Clattenburg nodded, then said, "Jack, to be honest, you are indeed a very good candidate for assistant refereeing. If you continue like this, I think within a year or two you will be able to get an assistant referee qualification in the Premier League, and even a FIFA assistant referee qualification will be easy to get. But it is good for you and bad for you. ”

"How?"

Brett Vaughn next to him didn't quite understand. According to Clattenburg, Jack was able to be promoted to assistant referee in the Premier League within a year or two, which is definitely an astonishing rate of promotion.

Webb's promotion rate is amazing, but Jack is faster than Webb. After all, Jack had only just become an assistant referee in the North for less than a year. It takes at least five to six years to be promoted to the Premier League as an assistant referee, which is still relatively fast. Which of those assistant referees in the Premier League today did not become an assistant referee in the Premier League after more than a decade of experience in the regional leagues.

That's a good thing. Why Clattenberg thinks it's bad for Jack.

"Jack's goal is definitely not just to be an assistant referee, he wants to be the referee. It is necessary to have experience as a referee in the lower leagues. But Jack's current promotion speed is too fast to go through this at the bottom. If he does not have experience as a referee in the lower leagues before becoming an assistant referee in the Premier League, it will affect his ability to become a referee quickly in the future. ”

Although Clattenburg is young, he has connections in the FA and knows a lot more than the average referee. Brett Vaughn doesn't understand, but Clattenburg does.

"Mark is right."

Jack agrees with Clattenberg. If nothing else, you can understand it by looking at the promotions of Chinese officials. For example, if you have been working in a department, let's say you have been promoted by the public prosecutor and the procuratorate. Once you're at a high level, if you want to keep going up, you're going to have a big problem. Because your experience at the grassroots level is too biased to compare to those who have a well-rounded experience. It's not so easy to jump out of the public security system. The promotion of English referees is actually no different from the promotion of officialdom in China.

"But I can't help it. I can only continue to walk like this. ”

"But if I could, I'd do it."

Brett Vaughn shook his head. Then he smiled wryly: "I'm different from you, I just hope to be an assistant referee in the Premier League in the future, then I'll be satisfied." Being a referee, I don't expect extravagantly. ”

Brett Vaughn is ambitious, but also realistic. He was envious of Jack's promotion path, and he was very satisfied with going to the Premier League as an assistant referee all the way.

"But, Jack. What league are you playing in this season? ”

Although Jack became an assistant referee in the English football league before Clattenburg, Clattenburg is more senior than Jack. The latecomer advantage is very obvious, because Clattenburg has already been a head coach and assistant coach in the local league, and an assistant coach in the northern league for two years, and now the head coach of the northern league. When Clattenburg becomes a referee in a football league, he is fully qualified to become a referee soon. That's the late-mover advantage.

Therefore, although Clattenberg envied Jack, he was not too jealous. Because the two people are now walking different paths. Jack is taking shortcuts, but it will be difficult to transform in the future. And Clattenburg is a good foundation, and the future development advantage is obvious.

"It's not very clear. I'm going to look at Howard's side too. I don't know anyone over there, and there are certainly a lot of people who aren't happy with me being promoted like this. Let's see if we can work with Howard. ”

"Well, that's a good idea."