The Ref Stop

U15 AR for an U16 game

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DChall96

DChall96

New Member
Level 7 Referee
Hi all,

First post in here.

Just seen an RDO accept a 15-year-old as an AR for a U16 game. It’s a professional club academy game…

I thought until you were 16, you could only do a year below your age?

Thanks,
 
The Ref Stop
I don't know in England. In Australia, if you are good enough you can do any game as an AR at 14 (13 for some associations). Age restrictions are applied to referees only.

Edit: appointments are done using common sense obviously even when there are no age restrictions.
 
Last edited:
You are 100% right. In England The FA are explicit in that under 16s may only do matches of an age group at least one below theirs (Rule 5b of the Regulations for the Registration and Control of Referees if you want a specific place to find it). It is no different for academies as far as I am aware.
Just to add: until recently I believe it was actually 2 years difference required but it was changed to one.
 
A few weeks ago, I was appointed to an academy U13 game as a lino. I am 15 btw. Unfortunately when I arrived at the ground I was informed the game was cancelled, but they were missing an AR for the U15 game. Because of my age, I wouldn’t usually be able to do that game, but the RDO at the ground said nobody minds at academy level and if you’re missing an official, and there is a different one available, just use common sense and allow them to referee 🤷
 
@MarcusLoveRef I could understand that to be fair. It seems reasonable as you are the same age group as the players there. The only issue in this scenario is that the referee is actually the age group below the players, so I'm surprised the OP scenario was permitted.
 
Always used to be two years below unless it's changed. Then as soon as you're 16 you can referee adults...
 
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