'IT'S REF JUSTICE'
ANY plan to move junior referees up to the Championship to act as linesmen will have an adverse affect on Mid Ulster football.
That's the view of Banbridge AFC Chairman Willy Cull ahead of plans for a pilot scheme to bring assistant referees into the second tier of football in Northern Ireland.
Referees across Northern Ireland went on strike at the weekend over a pay issue and the lack of assistants, causing the cancellation of matches in the new JJB Sport Premiership and the Championship.
But after agreement was reached between the referees and the IFA, the Association's President Raymond Kennedy announced a pilot scheme for Championship linesmen which is to start on September 1.
"Last season our reserves rarely played a match with a referee and I would imagine it would be the same this year," the AFC Chairman said.
"It is going to have an adverse affect on everyone, especially in Divisions One to Four who will probably lose their referees.
"That said it will give the referees an opportunity to progress but they should not be promoted if they are not competent."
The Chairman of one of the teams affected by the strike, Banbridge Town's Andrew Cully, said that the strike was "a sad day for football."
The Town were due to play Donegal Celtic at Crystal Park on Saturday but were not made aware officially of the postponement until after 7pm on Friday evening.
"Personally I was very disappointed by the decision to postpone the game," Mr Cully said. "As with every home match there were arrangements made, there had been planning done by everyone including the manager which have gone to waste and we will have been affected financially by the loss of gate money.
However, Mr Cully said that he did support the referees' calls for linesmen in the Championship.
"Referees are made to make decisions which go for and against clubs, sometimes they're right and sometimes they're wrong. Having linesmen will make that decision-making easier for them.
"It's meant to be a professional league and on paper it is an impressive league with bigger crowds - there was around 800 people at Portadown last Tuesday night; to have no official linesmen officiating just looks wrong," he added.
Meanwhile Banbridge Town get back to league action on Saturday afternoon with a fixture at home to Tobermore United.
The game was scheduled to be played at Tobermore but due to their ground-sharing arrangement with Coagh United both fixtures involving the clubs have now switched. Kick off on Saturday is at 3pm.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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