The Ref Stop

How do you usually study the LOTG in your country?

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GoookeRef

Football Referee from Japan.JFA Class 2 Referee.
Hi everyone,
I’m a football referee from Japan (Class 2, certified by the Japan Football Association).

I recently created a free study website that offers quizzes on the Laws of the Game.
It’s just a small project to make studying a bit more engaging, and I thought it might be useful as one of many resources.

Here are the links if you’d like to have a look:
English version - https://www.soccer-laws-dojo.com/en/
Japanese version - https://www.soccer-laws-dojo.com/

That said, I’d really like to learn from referees in other countries:
  • How do you usually study the LOTG?
  • Does your national association require referees to take regular Laws of the Game tests?
  • If so, what kind of format are those tests (multiple choice, written, online, in person…)?
For context, in Japan most referee exams use fill-in-the-blank style questions, and we are required to take a test every year to renew our license.
I’d love to hear how things work in your country! ⚽️
 
The Ref Stop
Once we get to Level 4 to have any chance of doing well we have to complete a LOTG exam online which is composed of 5 clip analysis questions and 10 written questions. This is all multiple choice but is nearly always written in a way to make you think.

Anything below L4 where you are a grassroots referee is completely up to you and there are no mandated tests. This is often the reason why the majority of decisions that are incorrect in law are seen at grassroots. I would support bringing in an exam to keep your registration as a referee but it would drastically decrease the number of officials lower down the football pyramid.
 
I'm a grassroots referee in the US (Washington DC area), so I referee club games between U9 (with my son) and U19. (I say club games because I do not referee High School games. To referee High School games, you need to do a little more training to get certified for that. They have a few different rules. I have no idea how to get certified to referee college, etc.). We need to recertify every year to referee grassroots. The recertification process is all online and it's usually a few videos about any law changes for that year (and we also need to do a background check and watch a few videos on first aid/medical emergencies and Safe Sport, which concerns preventing/avoiding child abuse, etc.) and there is a multiple choice test of 100 questions on the LOTG, which you need to get at least an 80% on it to pass. The test is similar to the test that you created. To "study" I read over the Laws a few times a year except for Laws 11 and 12, which I read over ALOT more. In season, I read over Laws 11 and 12 every week or two (especially Law 12). And this site/forum is such a huge help to get me thinking deeper about and interpreting the Laws. I visit this site daily all year long. It often brings up topics that I share with some of my fellow referees and we discuss. My two sons (18 and 16 years old) are both grassroots referees so we run questions/scenarios by each other all the time. Funny now how I watch games on TV (or in person) more for the refereeing than the game itself.
 
Samuel said:
Once we get to Level 4 to have any chance of doing well we have to complete a LOTG exam online which is composed of 5 clip analysis questions and 10 written questions. This is all multiple choice but is nearly always written in a way to make you think.

Anything below L4 where you are a grassroots referee is completely up to you and there are no mandated tests. This is often the reason why the majority of decisions that are incorrect in law are seen at grassroots. I would support bringing in an exam to keep your registration as a referee but it would drastically decrease the number of officials lower down the football pyramid.
Click to expand...
Hi Samuel, thank you for sharing your thoughts!

You’re absolutely right — just like in your country, in Japan too, at the grassroots level many matches don’t have referees officially appointed by the FA, and instead they’re handled by team staff. And of course, it’s thanks to those people that the games can actually take place.
That’s one of the reasons I’d like to create a website that gives those referees a simple and accessible way to understand the Laws correctly.

By the way, how do you usually work on improving your own understanding of the LOTG?
 
NOVARef said:
I'm a grassroots referee in the US (Washington DC area), so I referee club games between U9 (with my son) and U19. (I say club games because I do not referee High School games. To referee High School games, you need to do a little more training to get certified for that. They have a few different rules. I have no idea how to get certified to referee college, etc.). We need to recertify every year to referee grassroots. The recertification process is all online and it's usually a few videos about any law changes for that year (and we also need to do a background check and watch a few videos on first aid/medical emergencies and Safe Sport, which concerns preventing/avoiding child abuse, etc.) and there is a multiple choice test of 100 questions on the LOTG, which you need to get at least an 80% on it to pass. The test is similar to the test that you created. To "study" I read over the Laws a few times a year except for Laws 11 and 12, which I read over ALOT more. In season, I read over Laws 11 and 12 every week or two (especially Law 12). And this site/forum is such a huge help to get me thinking deeper about and interpreting the Laws. I visit this site daily all year long. It often brings up topics that I share with some of my fellow referees and we discuss. My two sons (18 and 16 years old) are both grassroots referees so we run questions/scenarios by each other all the time. Funny now how I watch games on TV (or in person) more for the refereeing than the game itself.
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for sharing! Getting at least 80% on a 100-question test sounds pretty tough.

And yes, Laws 11 and 12 are definitely tricky — I often go back and reread them myself when I study.

I think it’s fantastic that you discuss refereeing and study with your sons — that must be both fun and really valuable!

Since I became a referee, I’ve also found myself watching the positioning, movement, and body language of referees more than the actual game when I go to matches 😅

By the way, what did you think of the website I created? I’d really love to hear your feedback.
Also, are there any features or tools you’d like to see added to my website that could make it more useful for studying with your sons, or for your own development as a referee?
 
GoookeRef said:
By the way, how do you usually work on improving your own understanding of the LOTG?
Click to expand...
So I always check the IFAB app at the start of the season for law changes and then most counties do a law change presentation at the start of a season.

I also get a lot of it from here as that’s where most of the experts like to give their thoughts
 
in your countries do they issue questions and answers based on laws of the game? In my country Cyprus they do it and every year they public a pdf file with around 400 exam questions based on laws of the game scenari. Do you have something like that in your country as well?
 
akokkalis said:
in your countries do they issue questions and answers based on laws of the game? In my country Cyprus they do it and every year they public a pdf file with around 400 exam questions based on laws of the game scenari. Do you have something like that in your country as well?
Click to expand...

Wow, that’s really interesting — thanks for sharing about Cyprus!
In Japan, the federation doesn’t publish a big PDF of questions like that. Instead, referees have to take an exam every year to renew their license, but the questions are only used in the exam and not shared publicly.
That’s one of the reasons I started creating my website — to give referees a chance to practice outside of the official exam.
 
GoookeRef said:
Wow, that’s really interesting — thanks for sharing about Cyprus!
In Japan, the federation doesn’t publish a big PDF of questions like that. Instead, referees have to take an exam every year to renew their license, but the questions are only used in the exam and not shared publicly.
That’s one of the reasons I started creating my website — to give referees a chance to practice outside of the official exam.
Click to expand...
We have to make that exam also every year but they have that pool of 400 questions as possible exams questions. I actually created a quiz web app but its all in greek. I was thinking to expand it if i have the resources from other languages. I thought to make a professional translate in other languages but i consider about the results.
 
akokkalis said:
We have to make that exam also every year but they have that pool of 400 questions as possible exams questions. I actually created a quiz web app but its all in greek. I was thinking to expand it if i have the resources from other languages. I thought to make a professional translate in other languages but i consider about the results.
Click to expand...
I’m really curious about the web app you created — could you share it with me?
I’d also be very interested to see the set of questions published by your federation.

As you said, exam questions need to stay very faithful to the Laws of the Game. If they’re just translated directly, sometimes the local language nuance might not match perfectly, which could cause some differences in interpretation.
 
here is the link
https://ref-quiz-app.onrender.com/

you are absolutely right for the language. ideal scenario for me to have a new native language question dataset every year to load it in the app. For Cyprus and Greece i know how to find it. for other countries i don't have any idea.
 
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