Kids wearing glasses

[Kes]

That works for you until that child gets a serious injury and then the parents come for you because you said you were fine for them to play. I know I'm being cynical and over cautious and maybe a spoil sport stopping a child from playing football and I have received a lot of stick when I've enforced this but I just don't trust that this won't come back on me if something goes wrong

Your responsibility lies within the LOTG and being the referee. Your duty of care extends to things over which the parents/coaches have no control ie weather/condition of the pitch/safety of the goal posts etc. You don't have parental responsibility for em mate. You can get around the "glasses" issue by telling the coach that the kid doesn't play unless the parent personally confirms with you that he's happy for them to be worn. That's all I do. If I don't get a thumbs-up from the coach and the parent - the kid won't play with them on.

 

[lincs22]

I was at a kids tournament today, our lads were U7, I saw caps, jewellery, glasses and some strange coloured undershorts.... some of the brethren would have been foaming at the mouth!!

At an U7 tournament, caps and undershirts OK; jewellery No and glasses depends....

 

[Peter Grove]

Based on my own personal experience, it's not usually the lenses that cause the problem/injury (as has been mentioned, they're almost always shatter-proof nowadays) - it's the frames. And I have the scars on the bridge of my nose/underside of my eyebrow to prove it. Once while playing a school playground kickaround game and twice while conducting training drills, I've been hit in the face with a hard-struck ball. Every time, the ball drove the nosepiece or frames of the glasses into my nose or eyebrow area and left me with blood streaming down my face. On one occasion (the one when I was a kid at school) I needed stitches in the wound.

I would never want to see what happened to me, happen to any child in a game I was refereeing so I would never let a child play in normal 'street' glasses. Sports glasses or goggles are perfectly acceptable, their frames are designed not to cause such injury.