Public liability insurance

As a referee that is registered with your parent county FA you are covered with Public Liability Insurance for all forms of refereeing that you are involved in within the county.  This provides referees with substantial protection and cover for any incidents or unforeseen accidents that may accrue whilst you are officiating in football in this county.

However, it is essential for you to be aware that this Public Liability Insurance is only valid in football that is appropriately sanctioned and affiliated with your parent county FA or The Football Association.   If you referee in any form of football that is not affiliated to either the County FA or The FA and an incident arises, unfortunately you will not be covered by our Public Liability Insurance and the County will not be able to support you through disciplinary action against players and clubs.

The FA and County FAs feel that we have a duty of care to our referees to ensure that you are aware of the risks that you place yourself in through refereeing unaffiliated football. It is important to realise that in recent times there is a growing number of leagues and teams that are unaffiliated in all formats of the game, including both 11-a-side and 5-a-side football.

We would suggest that you should check with your competition to ensure that it is appropriately affiliated and sanctioned with either The FA or the respective County FA, by asking the competition secretary for the affiliation number.  If you have any concerns or queries on the affiliation of a competition then please contact your parent County FA to verify.

This information is provided so that you can make an informed decision on whether to officiate in unaffiliated football.