THERE is one major change to refereeing this season which probably only officials are aware of.

Until a few seasons ago, every time a referee cautioned a player and showed the yellow card, he would have to write a report of the incident.

This would illustrate the action the player had committed to warrant the referee’s decision.

It was felt because of this requirement, many cautionable offences were not treated as such, or if they were, the reports required were not sent in by recalcitrant referees.

It was therefore decided to do away with the written report as such for cautions.

The offence still needed to be reported, but all the referee is required to do now is to list the player’s name and club and the code for the offence; for instance, C2 for dissent.

What’s more, the referee would previously have to complete a separate form for every caution he had issued in a match, but now all the cautions can be put on one form.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the number of cautions reported went up considerably, no doubt triggered by not having to complete this laborious duty.

Reports for sending-offs were still required and they had to give the person in FA or County FA office, a clear picture of what happened.

The problem was that many of the reports were badly written and in some cases, the referee might get small details wrong, which gave players the opportunity to request a personal hearing.

This required a tribunal meeting, which all concerned had to attend.

Only last season there was a call from County FAs for better report writing and I made some suggestions in a Refereeing magazine.

Wasted effort, for the FA has decided that from the beginning of this season, reports from referees for sending-offs will follow those for a caution and only require a name and sending-off code.

I don’t forecast this will bring about a large increase in sending-offs, but it will improve some Saturday evenings for referees who no longer have to write the reports.