FA Guide to the Laws of the Game

The FA Guide to the Laws of the Game is the free online course on England Football Learning that every new referee in England completes before anything else. It is self-paced, takes about 90 minutes, and is built as five modules — Before the Match; Signals and Communication; Getting it Right; Offside; Managing Restarts and Set-Pieces — each closed by an end-of-module knowledge check. It is the mandatory pre-course learning for the FA Referee Course, and it is also where coaches, players, parents and volunteers go to learn the Laws properly.

The referee course asks for a minimum age of 14 on the start date (no maximum), a FA Number (FAN) — free — to book, and the mandatory online learning: this guide plus the free one-hour Safeguarding For All workshop. Referees aged 16 and over also complete the online Safeguarding Children course (£30, valid two years) and, if they referee youth football, need a DBS check (about £10). No playing or refereeing experience is needed. The fee is set by each County FA, typically £120–£150, and normally includes the training, a starter pack (whistle, flags, red and yellow cards, a match notebook holder and lanyard) and your first season’s registration. Kit is bought separately.

End to end it takes three to four months. Until the five games are logged you are a Trainee (Level T); at 16 or over you then become a Level 7 referee (Junior County Referee) — or Level 4W on the women’s pathway — and at 14–15 a Youth referee who moves to Level 7 at 16. Around 4,000 people a year take it.