Pre Match Instructions
I have read a lot of discussion recently from referees of all levels regarding pre-match instructions to assistant referees. One such point that was raised was a question of how long should the pre-match briefing be? Perhaps a question of where this discussion should take place? In my opinion it is always better where possible for this discussion to take place inside the referees changing room. This takes away the chance on most occasions of being disturbed by somebody else and it also means the assistant referees are not standing thinking about how cold it is or getting wet from the rain and not concentrating fully on the discussion. Each referee is different with their instructions and the length of time they take but it is important to make sure that you put across the points that as the referee you expect your team to follow throughout the game, it is important also for them to know what to expect from you as the team leader. In order to help in some way I have written below pretty