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You are in Referee Help >> The Referee's Log Book
REVIEWED BY SAM BAYLEY, 29TH OCTOBER 2003
I think of myself as an enthusiastic referee and so ever since the day I took up the whistle I have recorded each match I've officiated at. I now have several pages of details of matches, which I painstakingly copy into my FAMOA Log Book to collect my rewards at the end of each season.
However, last season I came across a program which makes the administration behind my refereeing much easier - The Referee's Log Book, created by AC Applications and endorsed by the Referee's Association. About 30 matches later, I decided to review the software and my findings are below...
Features
- Record the details of each new fixture as you are notified, and display your next four games on the main page.
- Record details about past matches and each new fixture - from team colours, assistant's names, location, weather and so on...
- Record details of cautions and dismissals and create misconduct reports which are saved automatically and can be printed or emailed to the appropriate FA.
- Display statistics of all your matches, including the number of cautions and dismissals.
Benefits
As I started refereeing men's football this season, the part of the software I have undoubtedbly benefitted most from is the Misconduct Report creator. The program automatically fills in team names and locations, and all you need to do is pick an offence code and describe the incident in the normal way. Instead of the 20 minutes it used to take to write each report in duplicate, it now takes me on average 90 seconds per report, all labelled with the address of the appropriate County FA.
It's easy to search through your past matches based on certain parametres - for example to find out how many games you've refereed in a certain competition. You can also search for names of players cautioned or dismissed to bring up their misconduct report should you need to attend a disciplinary hearing.
The list of matches displayed on the main page is useful too - the program even lets you know if there's likely to be a colour clash between two teams!
Scores
Ease of use: 8 - even the most computer-illiterate of referees should warm to this software. If you've managed to find your way to this page on the internet, you won't have any difficulties!
Features: 7 - the misconduct report facility is superb and I couldn't do without it; but more has been added to the Professional version and I'd like a way to log details such as competition rules and make it easier to add different age groups of the same team for use with youth football.
Price: 7 - £39.95 is what you'd expect to pay really, and I did willingly.
Please let me know what you think of the Referee's Log Book on our Discussion Board. If you want to buy a copy simply fill out the order form on the AC Applications website.