Referee observers are generally older, highly experienced referees who are no longer active themselves and who are officially commissioned by the Observation Department to assess the performance of referees and assistants in the soccer match they have been assigned to observe.
This serves to ensure quality assurance and further development as well as to determine the best referees by means of a ranking in all divisions in which referees are observed. This primarily includes all divisions of the first men's teams entitled to promotion and the performance divisions of the junior sector from the C juniors upwards.
This is preceded by sponsorships and observations by the teaching communities and match officials, which are not subject to an official mandate from the Observations Department, but are important building blocks on the path to the further development of an impartial referee.
It is therefore mandatory that every person wishing to qualify as an honorary referee observer must first successfully complete a number of sponsorships and LG observations after participating in a guideline training course in which the basic knowledge of performance evaluation is taught before they can obtain the qualification as a regional or association observer. The Observations Department decides on exceptions on a case-by-case basis.
Association observers observe games in the performance area from the district league to the Berlin league as well as games under the direction of referees in the junior performance squad and support group 2, regional observers observe games in the district leagues A-C. There is also a separate group of observers for the referee team performance squad.
Since the 2016/2017 season, all observers must also meet the special qualification criteria by attending at least five training groups from June to May of the following year and attending at least two workshops. As a rule, four workshops and at least one observer training course are held each season. However, due to limited availability at the national performance center, participation in the course is voluntary.
In addition, from this point onwards, the observation sheet for all divisions will be entered directly into the system and can therefore be viewed online by all referees involved in the match. The deadline for creating the sheet remains at a maximum of seven days.
In order to provide even more intensive support to the active referees, additional observers are needed at all times, which we recruit primarily from former referees. However, referees who are still active are also welcome to take on observation duties at any time.
