• The Laws of Small Sided Football have now been revised and are available from your County Football Association or on TheFA.com here. The recommended changes, which have been ratified by the FA Council, came in to force from 1 July. However please consult your County FA/Competition organiser to confirm the rules/laws which apply in the competitions you officiate in.
  • Within the changes to the Laws changes have been made to the Disciplinary sanctions applied in Small Sided Football. It has now been recommended that offences for which players would be cautioned and shown a yellow card in Small Sided Football be replaced with the showing of a blue card, which indicates a temporary suspension, rather than completion of a caution. For two ‘blue card’ offences a player will be sent off and shown a red card. Again to confirm these changes in competitions you operate, please consult the organisers or your County FA
  • Reporting of misconduct has also been amended with only serious send off offences being administered by the County FA and lesser offences dealt with by the Small Sided provider. Please speak to either your provider or County FA for clarification
  • The new course for Referees wishing to officiate in Small Sided Football will be available to all County FA’s shortly with the material issued to all Instructors accredited at County Accredited, Registered or Licensed Level.
  • At the same time a course for existing 11 a side referees will be made available if they wish to officiate in Small Sided Football. This again will be issued to all Instructors.
  • Referees who pass the course for Referees in Small Sided Football whether existing 11 a side referees or new referees will be registered separately as Small Sided Football Referees. They will need to pay the £10 registration at least once (either for Levels 1 – 10 or for being a Small Sided Football Referee)
  • If people who originally attend the course for Small Sided Football want to become eleven a side referees they may obtain registration by attending the second part of a two-tier course or attending in full a traditional basic course
  • The cost for attending the Small Sided Football Referee course will be £20 from 1 June 2004 plus the £10 to register.

Futsal

  • The FA promoted a number of Regional Leagues and Competitions in May with National Finals held in Sheffield in June. These Competitions have continued in many areas and clearly will require referees to support them
  • If you wish to find out more about the game of Futsal, please click here
  • At present we are encouraging existing 11 a side Referees to officiate in Futsal Competitions and will be providing awareness training for Instructors to be able to advise Referees on the Laws of Futsal and their practical application
  • A copy of the revised Futsal Laws can be found on the FIFA website or obtained from Dermot Collins, The National Small Sided Football Manager at the FA
  • Further competitions will be arranged later in the year and if you are interested in officiating in Futsal please contact your County FA initially or myself
  • Over the next year we will be aiming to produce a course for people with no previous refereeing background wishing to officiate in Futsal, similar to the course produced for other forms of Small Sided Football

If you have any questions on officiating in Small Sided Football or Futsal, please contact me on roger.vaughan@thefa.com or ring 01934 876011 or 07984 003477

Roger Vaughan
Referee Manager
Small Sided Football
July 2004