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I hate having discretion as to what is and isn't a dangerous accessory because it means lazy referees can make life harder for the rest of us. Is a wedding ring dangerous if it's taped up? Yes it is, but probably only to the person wearing it. If you break your finger while wearing a ring you...

I thought I'd already asked this question but now I can't find it. My son is likely to be doing the course this year and so I did the new online LOTG modules to see what they were like. I got one question 'wrong'. There was a clip of a defender sliding to block a shot. The ball hits her leg...

I'm asking this in my capacity as a referee secretary rather than as a referee. We have a GK in one of our teams who has Tourette's syndrome and it makes him very sweary. This came to light after a match played while a children's event was happening at the ground. The home club complained and...

That's because there's an amoeba that can blind you within 24 hours in some water. The risk is very small but obviously the consequences are awful. I wear contacts while refereeing and have done for years. I wouldn't dream of wearing glasses if only for safety reasons.

It varies. Some counties will give you games others will point you to leagues in the county where you can join the referee panel and get games from them.

I'm not seeing that in the clip at all. He doesn't release the squeeze, Saka's neck moves away from him. It's extremely easy to eliminate the risk of grabbing somebody's throat - don't grab them at all. The culture of football in the league I referee is totally different from the PL. It's...

My view is that the fact he's squeezing the opponent's windpipe at all is endangering his safety. It's quite possible Saka made the most of it. If that happened in parks game I was refereeing - where the amount of hands-on "grappling" is admittedly much lower - I would not hesitate to pull out...

I'm clearly in the minority but if you grab an opponent by the throat while I'm officiating you are seeing red. It's completely unnecessary and endangers the safety of your opponent. You shouldn't be grabbing him at all.

If a player is standing in the wrong spot I will first indicate the correct place with my arm, and if that doesn't work I'll shout "it's back here please", but if the player goes to actually take the throw in the wrong place I will blow before he releases the ball - the first time. So I don't...

I don't manage the parents but I always have new kids play in a couple of friendlies before we allow them in and it's the parents' behaviour I'm watching rather than the kid's ability.

I'm an arsenal fan so I am choosing my words carefully. I'm not sure you're allowed to put your hand around another player's throat while "contesting for the ball"?

The trick is to blow the whistle before the throw is taken. That way you can ask them to move to the right spot rather than turn it over and nobody expects any different.

I find it's normally the coaches that are the problem at U12 and below. Very occasionally parents, but I think that's overplayed a bit.

What do we think of this challenge on Saka yesterday?

I coach a U12 team. Early this season one of my players gets sin-binned. I ask the ref what he's said/done for dissent (I didn't hear anything) and the ref says it's not for dissent. I tell him if it's not dissent it's not a sin-bin. Referee says OK and the player plays on. Then one of their...

I don't think it's important. So long as the flag is definitely in the corner and on the white line I think that's good enough. It's only there so we can (usually) be definitive about whether it's a GK or throw-in. It's more important to check it's at least 5ft (chin level for me) and doesn't...

In which case they should clarify this this new position only applies in the 0.01% of games that have VAR. This is presumably in the guidance for referees rather than the laws?

On the contrary. I was a goalkeeper, and the striker has just headbutted my fist ref.

Isn't that exactly what a clash of heads is? Both players go for the ball. Both players touch the ball. Their heads collide. It seems that the order in which they touch the ball means one player has fouled the other. I'm not saying that's necessarily wrong, by the way. But that is the...

When I'm on the line I think of myself as a referee who happens to be in a good position to spot offside. I follow play much more than I scan the line, but I try to keep the last defender in my peripheral vision so I'm in the right place if there's an offside decision to make. It's worth...