Rotation of Referees, Or Not... (Same referee for almost half my league matches.)

Might seem like quite a strange observation, but it has actually had some influence on some of my games, not least my teams disciplinary record.

Playing as AFC Telford in the Blue Square North, I've had the same referee (Scott Duncan) for no less than 16 matches out of 35 currently played, with 5 left to play. I've even had runs of several consecutive league matches with him officiating.

The remaining matches were officiated by only four other different referees in total.

Seems highly irregular, even in a more regional division, that one official would participate in that many matches of one team. The biggest drawback for me in this particular save, is that he just happens to be quite card-happy, which means that I feel my team is running at somewhat of a disadvantage when it comes to cautions. In a few of those matches, the post-match information has even suggested that he seemed to favour the opponents with his decisions.

Now of course, I'm not claiming that the AI cheats, because quite simply, it doesn't. But certainly this seems to be an anomaly, which shouldn't really be happening, but as it is happening, can have a detrimental impact. I'll also add that I've also had this same referee (Scott Duncan), for 4 of my FA Cup ties consecutively from the 2nd Qualifying Round, through to the First Round, along with 2 of my FA Trophy ties (3rd Qualifying Round and 1st Round), en-route to the final.

I've not raised this in the bugs forum as yet, because it could be a unique occurrence in my own save. But I'm interested if anyone else has noticed similar circumstances with referees.

I'm also interested to know what the distribution of referees between matches should realistically be, as checking the stats for the BSN after 35 matches, the referees to have officiated the most games are as follows:

(I've only included the top 20 in the image. 35 referees have been used to officiate matches overall at this stage, in total.)

If required, I'll be happy to upload a save at the end of the season, so the stats can be checked over a full season and in all competitions. I've also got lots of leagues running in different countries, so the data can be checked for those too.

yes as waterford in ireland i must of had alan kelly for about 20 of my 36 matches. everytime i saw he was the ref i thought he must be fed up of seeing us!

and like your ref he was card happy so i ended up with a very high amount of cards

I have noticed this as well. Also, this is why some people are reporting issues with too many cards: If you get a severe ref for half your matches, you will get an absurd number of cards.

i believe they are looking into this as its been reported by a few other folk, must be a pain if you get stuck with a harsh ref!

i believe they are looking into this as its been reported by a few other folk, must be a pain if you get stuck with a harsh ref!

Ahh... that's good then. I try to make observations like this more politely than some folk do though.

Mind you, on the funny side, he's refereed that many games, if he does any more, I wouldn't be surprised to see him appear as a club "icon"

Ahh... that's good then. I try to make observations like this more politely than some folk do though.

Mind you, on the funny side, he's refereed that many games, if he does any more, I wouldn't be surprised to see him appear as a club "icon"

yeah i think this is the sole reason some people have complained about getting too many cards and others have not. i'm sure they will work this out for the patch coming out! Thanks for not calling me a fanboy tho hahahaha

Haha club icon!!! He'll get his own parking space as well!!

Actually, I believe I've found a picture of this referee in action...

haha

seriously now, yes this happens quite often, but I noticed it was even worse in fm10 so maybe they fixed it, but not totally

You could of had it worse though, look at the stats for Declan Ford. 178 yellows and 14 reds in only 25 games!

Ahh yes, but considering he's likely given those to different opponents. Six of my team's red cards came from... you guessed it!

You can't have Scott Duncan; he refereed ALL my matches when I led FC United, also in the BSN! It did make a heck of a difference because he's a right softie (in my game; seemingly not in yours) and I could set a permanent hard tackle tactic without risking any cards.

Now I've re-started in Level 9 with Bedlington Terriers I have TWO referees who share responsibilities. Both are medium in their strictness so I have to be more careful.

I thought maybe it was an issue with downloaded databases, but clearly that's not the cause. hope SI do fix it because it is a slight game-spoiler.

Tis a known bug and has hopefully been sorted in the patch.

In my second season the problem seems to have solved itself a little, but in the first S Duncan refereed about 95% of my matches.

Just for my own amusement, I Googled "Scott Duncan referee" and yes... he is a real referee.

This thread actually came 5th in the search, but whilst browsing the search results, this quote gave me quite a chuckle...

But County felt aggrieved after having a penalty claim rejected when targetman Robbie Matthews was hauled down Darlington captain Ian Miller.

The hosts, however, had a penalty appeal turned down themselves when Hone was grounded by Todd but again referee Scott Duncan waved away any protests.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_conf/8897807.stm

Reported fixed for next patch.

Ahh... good to see more members of the "Scott Duncan Appreciation Society" there

I would like to state that I wish to have Howard Webb officiating all my matches henceforth!

FA Trophy Final. He gave my side two penalties and sent one of their players off. We won 8-2!!