What do I need to start?

Hi, have moved back to UK from Australia. Whilst in Australia I officiated junior football for one season. Having come back to the UK I emailed my local county FA to ask if I needed to complete the FA basics course to start refereeing again.After a few emails, I was informed that I would start as a level 7 referee, and was sent through the post a FA referee ID card. This is the only information I recieved. So with this in mind I have a few questions...

How do I obtain a number RA-FA unique 5 digit number?

The kit and badges situation sounds a bit confusing, I will be mainly doing Sunday league football (youth and adult) for the first couple of years. So what badge should I get embroided for my kit? The FA county or the FAMOA?

Last thing, is there anything else I would of missed out on by not having to attend the FA course?

Cheers for any info,

maybe pop along to your next local ra meeting and have a chat with the p.i.c.

... or give them a call

have you got your crb checks / first aid course cert etc

Yeah I was going to pop along to my next one.

Yes I have both a current CRB and First Aid certs

Have you done your safeguarding children cert?

You won't have missed out on much, so long as you know what you're doing. Not sure about your RA-FA number, I don't have one I just use my FA number. Have you got a kit? I have the FAMOA badge on my kit, if you intend to ref county cup matches you have to have the CFA badge on, if you ask your CFA where they get their badges embroidered just go there and get your shirt done.

Not much else, just watch out, make sure you are confident/firm from the start, never reffed in Australia but I'm guessing you will get more stick from the adults here than the youths there but I might be wrong.

Good luck, hope it goes well for you.

Sorry, forgot about that one. Yes I have also done my safeguarding.

Nope not got my kit yet, will be purchasing this week with the FAMOA on the left pocket from A&H.

Ha, yes looking forward to the language. They gave some abuse just moaned a lot. They seem to be under the idea that 'soccer' is a non contact sport.

If you have the time and patience you can get the nike kit cheaper from other places than a and h, you can get it about £20 cheaper and then either ask your CFA for a badge or failing that just buy one online. It turns out cheaper but if you're not too bothered about £20 then a and h are a good supplier.

They normally do good deals on starter packs too if you need any other stuff.

I obtained my referees registration number from my RDO today, 2 letters and then then 3 numbers (I think), it took him about 20 seconds to look it up, I'd start there mate

PommieRef said:

Last thing, is there anything else I would of missed out on by not having to attend the FA course?

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Yes mate. You missed out on forking out about a hundred notes to do the course.

One thing that annoys me is that my CFA held a course only for women where they only have to pay £40 for everything (fine, good idea to get more women into refereeing, not a problem) but there is never anything to help young people (ie 14-17/18 year olds or men for that matter). You can see why most people are put off by the price tag. For course, kit and equipment it costs just shy of £200 which is very expensive for a 14 year old, the only reason I did it was because I knew that I wouldn't quit after my first match because I wanted to do it, but people who just want to give it a try to see if they like it, won't because of the price tag!!

Yep, same as you @HullRef I could tell that I would stick with it, and realised that I could effectively pay for it quite quickly. Glad I did it now! Lots of people I know have said they wouldn't do it because of the cost, but as long as you stick with it it's definitely worth it! A few people I know passed the course and then haven't reffed a single game, you have to question why they did it in the first place!