I wonder when the last time was someone actually failed a boot safety check ?
Certainly in senior football, it feels increasingly like something we do just because we've always done it.
When you could wear old plastic studs down to the thread, so you ended up with a screw sticking out of the end, or you could sharpen a metal stud, there was a reason. Never had it whilst I have been refereeing and can only remember it once in the last 20 years of playing - and that was an officious referee who decided a missing stud was dangerous (which I personally didn't agree with).