The Ref Stop

IFAB LoTG 2018/19 book

E

Eddie

Well-Known Member
Level 7 Referee
Afternoon all,

I’m a newly qualified referee & as such I’ve ordered the laws of the game book. After finally completing the arduous order process (I think that took 2 weeks!), I finally have confirmation of dispatch. However...they’ve informed me it may take upto 4-6 weeks to arrive. I nearly spat my smoked salmon voulevant out when I read it! ;) I’m UK based btw.

They informed me within the e-mail it’s because I took the ‘cheap-skate’ delivery option.

I was wondering if this is just a generic caveat or does it really take that long in everyone’s experience? If so I’ll have to get one from elsewhere as I found the course to be quite light when it came to the laws, so it’s obvious the FA expect us to learn them ourselves, which is perfectly fine by me but difficult without the book & is like to get reffing as soon as really.
 
The Ref Stop
If I were you I would cancel. That book is out of date in 4-6 weeks and won't have this year's law modifications for next season which come into effect in June.
 
Thanks James, they’ve already dispatched so cancelling may not be an option. I could return it when it eventually gets here.

Daft question...are there significant enough changes to get an up-to-date copy each year? The inclusion of VAR isn’t really applicable to me! If indeed that’s the only major change.
 
Eddie said:
I was wondering if this is just a generic caveat or does it really take that long in everyone’s experience?
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I received a copy when completing my course, I assumed this was standard but evidently maybe not. As JamesL mentioned, it's worth holding back on ordering one. There are a good number of modifications to the laws this year
 
Eddie said:
Thanks James, they’ve already dispatched so cancelling may not be an option. I could return it when it eventually gets here.

Daft question...are there significant enough changes to get an up-to-date copy each year? The inclusion of VAR isn’t really applicable to me! If indeed that’s the only major change.
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Here's a link http://theifab.com/document/for-football-bodies (choose the second one down) which contains the law modifications for next season. A fair number of them. VAR was included in the LOTG book from 2017/18 as far as I remember
 
If you are going to referee seriously, yes, you should get the Laws each year. And you should read them cover to cover every year. But that doesn't mean you have to buy the paper version. IFAB makes the pdf of the full book readily available. Upload it into an iPad or a phone, and it works great--and gives you a search function as well.
 
Eddie said:
Daft question...are there significant enough changes to get an up-to-date copy each year? T
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Yes. Usually.

Always get a copy. I have two, one in my kit bag and one at home. Depending on where you are, you may get a copy delivered to you for free from your county FA.
 
My book hardly ever gets used. The only reason I get it (comes as part of my rego with RA) is because it looks good on my bookshelf next to the previous years' ones :)

I download (and I recommend you do the same) the pdf version from IFAB every year to all my devices, mobile phone, iPad, laptop, destop, whatever you have. It is much more handy and the best thing about it is that if you are looking for something about the laws, you can just type it in the search bar and find it much faster.

Get the soft copy here and no need to buy another book.
 
Yeah I’ve downloaded it to my iPad/phone now, which seems like the better option anyway.

It’s an interesting read!
 
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Eddie said:
Daft question...are there significant enough changes to get an up-to-date copy each year? The inclusion of VAR isn’t really applicable to me! If indeed that’s the only major change.
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It depends on the year but quite often - and especially in recent years, there are numerous relatively significant changes. In 2016, for instance there were 96 substantive changes (in addition to numerous wording changes). In 2017 there were 43 changes and in 2018, 28 changes.
Referee117 said:
VAR was included in the LOTG book from 2017/18 as far as I remember
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VAR only came in in the 2018-19 edition.
 
Referee117 said:
I can see VAR in my 2017/18 edition. Ah can see it's only mentioning a very top line 'this is being tested' etc
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VAR is mentioned twice in the 2017-18 edition but only where out talks about the ongoing experiments into it. The following is from the preamble to the 2017-18 laws document:
The IFAB will continue the video assistant referee (VAR) experiment with around 20 competitions, including FIFA, undertaking ‘live’ experiments of the protocols established in 2016. In addition, some competitions will continue to experiment with a 4th substitute being available to teams in extra time and there will be some testing of ideas to tackle time-wasting (including effective playing time) and a potentially fairer system of taking kicks from the penalty mark. Decisions will be taken at The IFAB’s 132nd AGM in 2018.
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Book arrived yesterday btw, took 2 days [rolls eyes].

Did anyone else find themselves having to re-read certain paragraphs to figure out what they’re actually trying to tell you!?

Haven’t read the whole thing yet but found myself pulling a face when reading ‘extra persons on the field of play’ section.
 
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Eddie said:
Did anyone else find themselves having to re-read certain paragraphs to figure out what they’re actually trying to tell you!?
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Yes and in some cases all I could figure out was that they could be trying to tell you two things with different meanings.
 
one said:
Yes and in some cases all I could figure out was that they could be trying to tell you two things with different meanings.
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I can only imagine this ambiguity is a deliberate method by IFAB to keep us on our toes, bless them!
 
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