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#Post#: 85121--------------------------------------------------
New Appointments
By: scottie Date: November 19, 2024, 4:39 am
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Not sure if this is the correct place for this but . . . .
Having moved North a year or so ago I've noticed some
appointment changes since Willie Collum took over as Head of
Refereeing. While the FIFA referees get the bulk of the
Premiership appointments there have been some changes.
Last season Craig Napier and Graham Grainger (who I think has
real promise) had quite a few Premiership games; this season
Napier has had a couple and, so far, none to Grainger.
Calum Scott and Ross Hardie seem to be picking up more as does
Iain Snedden. There have been debuts for Dan Mc Farlane and
Lloyd Wilson. I wonder if this is the new direction of travel
with newer blood being used sparingly to give the more
experiences officials a 'bit of a breather''.
So far David Munro seems to have disappeared. Referee news isn't
big up here but he is a FIFA referee so . . . . and with Collum
stepping down there is, at least, one white badge to be picked
up.
Internationally, Scotland seems to be a bit short of the halcyon
days of Messers Dallas, Thomson and Collum. Nick Walsh has made
his CL debut and John Beaton seems to be picking up EL matches
but the Nations League appointments were a bit 'lacking'. I
wonder what influence, if any, the European supervisors have? We
have Willie Young, Kenny Clark, Iain Brines and Calum Murray and
I wonder if Willie Collum will be joining their ranks once he
gets more established?
The VAR Review is interesting and Collum is honest and
forthright about the decisions which is really positive. If
anyone has more/better information I'd be glad to hear it.
#Post#: 85135--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Appointments
By: arabref Date: November 20, 2024, 5:36 am
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Can't find anything about it now but David Munro resigned during
the summer. Seemed to come out of the blue I think as he'd done
a Champions League qualifier in early July, so it wasn't as if
he'd decided to call it a day at the end of last season. Nothing
official yet but Glasgow RA had posted something on Facebook
about Ross Hardie being nominated for FIFA so perhaps he's one
replacement? With Collum and Munro gone there's presumably a
second badge available as well.
#Post#: 93866--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Appointments
By: JCFC Date: August 5, 2025, 6:01 am
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The thoroughness of arabref 's posting of appointments led me to
review changes. Printer problems, coupled with laziness on my
part, means that my most recent available list is that for
2021-22. Of the officials active in SPFL matches this season,
sixteen had not reached Category 1 by 2021.
Of these, six - Connor Ashwood, Jordan Curran, Daniel Graves,
Alastair Grieve, Ryan Lee and Greg Soutar - were in Category 2
and have been familiar names in subsequent seasons.
Ross Clark, Gary Hanvidge, Joel Kennedy and Duncan Nicolson were
Category 3.
Category 3 Development included Josh Hay, Sean Murdoch and Jamie
Wilkie.
Lewis Hogarth, Jamie McCunnie and Cameron Stirling had not yet
appeared on the "Approved" list.
I believe that the Category system may have changed nowadays,
but do not know the details.
#Post#: 93898--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Appointments
By: jad Date: August 6, 2025, 8:17 am
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To judge by the SFA Handbook (last season's version is still
available on the SFA website), some development categories have
been eliminated, so that the sequence now runs 3D > 3 > 2 > 1.
It would appear that Messrs McCunnie, Hay, Hogarth and Stirling
were all promoted to Category 2 in 2024, though some may have
reached that level in mid-season. Jamie Wilkie was elevated to
Category 2 in 2023. Others will know more than I do, but it
appears that the new regime favours rapid promotion.
#Post#: 94674--------------------------------------------------
Re: New Appointments
By: Affy_Moose Date: August 26, 2025, 6:52 am
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[quote author=jad link=topic=6446.msg93898#msg93898
date=1754486252]
To judge by the SFA Handbook (last season's version is still
available on the SFA website), some development categories have
been eliminated, so that the sequence now runs 3D > 3 > 2 > 1.
It would appear that Messrs McCunnie, Hay, Hogarth and Stirling
were all promoted to Category 2 in 2024, though some may have
reached that level in mid-season. Jamie Wilkie was elevated to
Category 2 in 2023. Others will know more than I do, but it
appears that the new regime favours rapid promotion.
[/quote]
Yes. For 3-4 seasons, a 'Select' and 'Performance' Category
were established, when previously an official would go 3 > 2 >
1dev > 1 or 3 > SARdev > SAR
The Select officials were effectively the established
Premiership officials. Performance included those making a push
for Premiership, those now established as L2/L1 officials
(having completed/passed their development 'probation'), and
those 'relegated' from Select and on their way back down.
Removing Select/Performance allows for both quicker progression
(and indeed, from a cynical point of view, quicker 'demotion'
without the need to address it formally). I also believe that
the legacy category system had blocks such as a position in the
Performance category was required to be a 4th official in the
Premiership etc. I believe such minimum categories are required
throughout the pyramid for certain fixtures (either explicitly
and publicly available to all officials, or used by the
appointments team less formally - i.e. minimum categories for
probationary rounds of the Scottish Cup; higher minimum
categories for first two rounds proper etc).
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