AT a time when VAR (Virtual Assistant Referee) has become a part of professional football, albeit not across the board, there are still no LINESMEN in the amateur Valenciana 1st Regional Group 8.
Clubs in the calibre of CD Montesinos, CD Dolores, CD Murada, CD Altet, Monovar CD, Bahia Santa Pola, AC Torrellano, Sporting San Fulgencio, Monforte CF, Atletico Catral, Hondon Nieves, AD Betis, Santa Pola CF, Racing San Miguel, CF Rafal, and Callosa Deportivo B, play in the 1st Regional Group 8 in the current 2018-19 season, WITHOUT linesmen.
And it’s not just at the 1st Regional group level – the omission of linesmen is widespread in the lower echelons of the game in Spain.
A shocking fact when you think that even junior level football in England at least have linesmen, in certain official leagues, as does Cubs football.
The Valenciana Federation consists of Regional Preferente (level 5), Primera Regional (level 6) and Segunda Regional (level 7).
The 3rd division Group 6 corresponds to the Valenciana community clubs, governed in part by both the Spanish FA and Valenciana FA.
Once again with no linesmen this season it has caused widespread controversy, insofar as the games misdemeanor, of one official, the referee.
In Spain referees in the 1st Regional G8 receive within the region of 135 euros a match.
Teams who gain promotion from the 1st Regional G8 this season will see their costs triple – in paying a referee – and two linesmen.
This debacle is at time when the professional game of football at the higher echelons is flushed with more money than that of confetti used in Elizabeth Taylor’s eight marriages.
Non league and amateur football clubs – both in the UK and Spain – continue to struggle financially.
And it’s not just non league and amateur clubs – match officials in the professional game at the lower echelons get a disparity when it comes to financial budgets in the UK.
The Leader reveals the shocking disparity between the wages earned by Premier League officials and those who work more in the Football League in England.
Select Group referees, mostly in the Premier League, earn a basic salary of around £65,000 per year.
They also receive fees in excess of £1,000 per game in the top flight.
Officiating 38 games in a season would tally pay in excess of over £100,000.
Yet referees on the National Group in the Football League are not on contracts and are paid in the region of £380 a match. They sign up to the National Group on the equivalent of a freelance basis.
If they officiate the 46 games in a Football League season, they would receive £17,480.
It’s good news for Spanish officials with salary rises seeing Spanish referees becoming the highest paid in Europe, as La Liga plan to increase their income by a reported huge 50% by 2022-23.
Referees will receive 296,000 euros per year, with assistants receiving a whopping 61% increase.
Lower league officials pay will increase by 67% and 82%, respectively.
And VAR is to be introduced in the Segunda division from 2019-20.
The non-linesmen debacle shames football at a time when nets full of money are poured into the professional game – flagging up an own goal at amateur level!
