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Took a long time - well over 100 games - before I had my first nil - nil game. They remain remarkably rare.

Also playing devil’s advocate, this wasn’t a punch to the head, but a head butt on the arm of the goal keeper. Whose body part occupied the space first? The Arsenal payer wasn’t stationary, but moved at pace into the goalkeeper. For me, six of one and half a dozen of the other. These things...

My understanding is is that you will still have to declare and pay tax on anything over £1000, but if you have a “side hustle” that earns above £1000, but less than £3000 you will declare it - and pay tax on it - using a simplified online form rather than having to complete and submit a tax...

I wouldn’t tell the managers I was being observed, but I might (and probably would/did if this was a subsequent observation to the one where it had been raised as a development point) brief both managers before the game about my expectations re subs: something like: “ happy for you to have subs...

It was bought up in one of my Level 7 to 6 observations (and this would have been an observation, not match day coaching- a few years back) Saturday afternoon game, CARs not NARs. First round of substitutions went well, but in a subsequent set, ball out of play, manager calls, “subs please...

To be fair, it is probably very simple when you referee at a level that everyone knows what they are doing, have NARs and possibly even a 4th official. Things are very different for those of us that operate in and amongst the weeds of grassroots football (and this is, I believe, what @GraemeS...

In the UK we call them bibs.

I know that we are veering well off topic, but coincidentally I wrote a blog post this weekend about how I was right and ChatGPT was wrong. (Be warned, has absolutely nothing to do with refereeing, or football at all) https://www.amathsteacherwrites.co.uk/how-i-beat-chat-gpt/

Happy New Year to everyone on the forum, and an enormous “Thank you” to @Ross and all RefChat staff and moderators for making this the excellent place it is.

Morning all, I came across this article in The Guardian today, nothing we men and women in black aren’t aware of, but interesting 2 minute read nonetheless: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/dec/30/football-integrity-problem-professor-dan-hough?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-5 This is the book it...

Agree that the goal should not have been disallowed for offside (and a useful, timely reminder that you can’t be offside from a corner) but I think the ball was still moving when the corner was taken, so the corner needed to be re-taken. To be fair, I’ve had to watch it a few times to spot...

Perhaps it is the teacher in me coming to the fore, but - with the massive caveat that yhtbt - I’m disagreeing with @Big Cat and @The Gump on this (sorry gents!) these are U15s, I do think you need to get involved at the time (and absolutely must do so after the game and report through the...

@RustyRef is pretty much right re:employment law , but someone/anyone can be “got rid of”/“let go” and replaced without the need for any reason/redundancy in their first two years of employment (used to be 1 year, was raised to 2 years by the the previous Tory government in circa 2012(?), I...

Thanks for sharing that - I enjoyed reading it.

My daughter plays Korfball - a sort of cross between netball and basketball played indoors. Her fixture tomorrow has been cancelled. But she lives in Cardiff, which has been placed under a red weather warning, so a sensible decision. A day to batten down the hatches.

What about if some form of concussion protocol was introduced? If game has to be stopped for a head injury, it is mandatory for the player “down” to leave the pitch for a minimum of 10 mins to be assessed? Player could be replaced by a sub for that time whilst the assessment takes place. Wont...

Saw this on Twitter, have no context, no idea who the teams are etc., Thought it might be of interest. What would you do in this situation?

So sorry to read this, @Ori, and I hope that you are OK. Forgive me, I don’t really know you from the forum, and this may be known by others, but how old are you? Don’t need to know exact age, just whether or not you are over 18. Not to diminish what you have had to endure - disgraceful...

I would, and have, told the player to go and get the ball. Have done this at U16 level, trying to remember if I’ve done it at U18. May even have done it in OA, but not sure. Wouldn’t do it in every game, I’d “read the room” first, but it’s certainly more powerful than either not doing...

I still remember one fixture from a few years back. I didn’t think I was having a bad game, but one spectator, in particular, disagreed and was giving me a dogs dinner of abuse from the sideline: “Ref, are you blind?” “Ref, will you ever get anything right?” “Ref, you are effing useless.” It...