Weekly refereeing review: 5–12 October 2026

From a new grassroots curriculum to IFAB’s restart checks and Anfield’s second yellow, the week that mattered for match officials.

The week ran from a syllabus to a set of public decisions. The FA put one development curriculum under grassroots refereeing in England. IFAB spent three days on delayed restarts, an accidental double touch in a shoot-out, and the one-minute treatment clock. Pro Ref named the Matchweek 6 officials, and published the EFL appointments for 9–15 October. Saturday and Sunday then put the same habits on television: a second yellow at Anfield, a goal off an arm at Selhurst, and a headbutt at Old Trafford.

What officials should take from this week

Foundation and Perform are the live phases of the new National Refereeing Curriculum. Match control, dissent, foul recognition, DOGSO, tactical fouls, emotional control and wellbeing are the modules to work through before Compete and Excel follow in November and December.
A deliberate delay at a goal kick is handled by the five-second countdown and, if it runs out, a corner. A card comes when that corner is then excessively delayed. An accidental double touch in a shoot-out that still ends in the goal is a retake. A one-minute period off the field that is still running at the half-time whistle is finished when the next period starts.
Judge each incident on its own facts. A foul that stops a promising attack is a caution even when it is the second yellow. A goal scored from a hand or arm, or immediately after that touch, is a handball offence even when the touch is accidental. A headbutt, or the attempt, away from a challenge for the ball is violent conduct.

One curriculum for the grassroots pathway

On Friday the FA launched a National Refereeing Curriculum, delivered through FA Learning, to standardise referee education across grassroots football in England. Officials move through Foundation, Perform, Compete and Excel. Online modules cover match control, handling dissent, foul recognition, DOGSO, tactical fouls, emotional control and wellbeing, with face-to-face workshops putting that work on the pitch. Foundation and Perform are being delivered first. Compete follows in November and Excel in December. The Grassroots to Greatness webinars will follow the same curriculum. Marc Birkett, the FA's senior referee manager for grassroots development, said registration fees will be reinvested into it, after the referee workforce asked for a more structured journey. County FAs are being given resources so the local offer matches the national one.

Saturday takeaway: Treat Foundation and Perform as the current syllabus. If a dissent, DOGSO or tactical-foul problem showed up in your weekend game, that module is the place to take it, and the county workshop is where it gets practised.

Source: The FA; Birkett via fcbusiness

IFAB's three checks: countdown, double touch, and the minute

IFAB posted three law checks across the week, and the 2026/27 text already holds the answers.

On Monday it asked what to do when a goalkeeper, already cautioned, ignores a ball passed in by a ball girl, fetches another, and walks slowly to the goal area at the end of the match. Because the delay is deliberate, the referee starts the five-second countdown without waiting for the goalkeeper to have the ball: whistle, a clear signal for the kick, and a raised-hand count. If the ball is not in play when the five seconds end, the opponents get a corner on that side. The goalkeeper is cautioned, and sent off from the earlier yellow, only if they then excessively delay that corner. The same countdown principle sits in Law 15 for a delayed throw-in.

On Wednesday the scenario was a shoot-out. The kicker slips, the ball accidentally touches the non-kicking foot or leg at the same moment or immediately after the kick, and the ball goes in. Law 10 now records the outcome in both directions. If the ball enters the goal, the kick is retaken. If it does not, the kick is missed.

On Thursday IFAB reminded officials of the one-minute off-field period. Where a player must remain off the field for one minute and the first half ends before that minute has elapsed, they may enter at the start of the second half. The same principle covers the gap between the end of normal time and extra time, half-time in extra time, and the gap between extra time and penalties. The minute is a running clock from the restart. The referee times it, with help from the other officials, and the player returns only with the referee's permission.

Saturday takeaway: Start the countdown when the delay is already happening, including while the ball is still being fetched. Keep the card for a player who then holds up the restart you have given the other team. In a shoot-out, an accidental second touch that produces a goal means a retake. Write down a treatment minute that is still running when you blow for half-time, and let the player start the next period.

Source: IFAB Law 16, IFAB Law 10, off-field treatment protocol

Anfield: the second yellow is its own decision

Chris Kavanagh sent Ryan Gravenberch off in Liverpool's 0–3 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday. The first yellow came shortly after the restart, for a foul on Elliot Anderson. The second, with the score 0–0, was for a challenge on Jérémy Doku. Erling Haaland scored inside three minutes of the red card. Sky Sports pundits called the first yellow soft, and Gary Neville called the second very soft, while adding that a player already booked, and on the wrong side of Doku, hands the referee a decision.

On RefChat, the peer reading split the two fouls. Tealeaf called the second caution a clear stopping-a-promising-attack offence: a challenge from behind with no prospect of playing the ball, by a player already on a yellow. Others agreed the Doku trip was cynical, and that once the free kick is given there is only one disciplinary outcome. The first yellow was the one several contributors thought harsh.

Saturday takeaway: Decide the second foul as if the pocket were empty. A challenge from behind that stops a promising attack, with no prospect of playing the ball, is a caution. The red card is the consequence of the warning already given. It is a poor reason to wipe the second offence.

Source: Sky Sports; RefChat; appointments via Premier League

Selhurst: a goal off the arm, and a short check

Peter Bankes refereed Crystal Palace against Nottingham Forest. Palace's second goal, in first-half stoppage time, was given to Jefferson Lerma: a header from Adam Wharton's corner that went through Matz Sels. The club's report recorded a brief VAR check and the goal standing. Replays later showed the header grazing the elbow of team-mate Anan Khalaili on the way in.

Dale Johnson, the BBC's football issues correspondent, said a goal cannot be scored if the ball touches the arm, and that VAR found no conclusive evidence to intervene. Former assistant referee Darren Cann said that after several angles and a long look, the header does appear to come off Khalaili's arm, and that VAR has to go with the on-field decision when clear evidence is not readily available.

Law 12 is tighter than the broadcast line. It is an offence if a player scores directly from their hand or arm, even accidentally, or immediately after the ball has touched their hand or arm, even accidentally. The upper boundary of the arm is in line with the bottom of the armpit, so an elbow is inside that test. Where the arm of a team-mate is the touch immediately before the ball is in the net, that player is the one the law is describing.

Saturday takeaway: If you see the ball go in off a hand or arm, disallow the goal on that test, accidental or otherwise. If you do not see it, the review needs a clear image at once. A long magnified argument belongs to the coverage, and the on-field decision stands.

Source: BBC Sport; Crystal Palace; Laws of the Game 2026/27

Old Trafford: the challenge and the reaction are separate

Stuart Attwell sent Rodrigo Bentancur off in the 78th minute of Manchester United's 1–1 draw with Tottenham, with Spurs already 1–0 down. BBC Sport reported a reckless challenge by Bentancur on Luke Shaw, Shaw shoving him off the pitch, and Bentancur planting his head towards Shaw's face. Sky Sports called it a headbutt motion and reported a brawl between the benches. Dominic Solanke equalised in stoppage time. Roberto De Zerbi later called the red card a mistake and, in the same breath, praised the reaction.

Law 12 treats violent conduct as the use, or the attempt to use, excessive force or brutality against an opponent when the player is not challenging for the ball. Contact is not required. The original challenge and the act that follows it are separate offences. A reckless challenge is a caution. A headbutt, or the attempt, after the ball has gone is a sending-off.

Saturday takeaway: Punish the challenge for what it is, then look again at what happens once the player is no longer challenging for the ball. An attempt with the head, after a shove and away from the ball, is violent conduct. Manage the melee that follows, and report both parts.

Source: BBC Sport; Sky Sports

Ali Wilson, and a course that still qualifies referees

Monday was the start of Dyspraxia Awareness Week, and FA Refereeing published Ali Wilson's story with Peter Leonard, referee development officer at Westmorland FA. Wilson, 20, has a chromosome deletion with dyspraxia-like effects on coordination. Four years after choosing refereeing in a school careers week, he has refereed a Westmorland FA County Cup final and run the line in the Women's FA Cup. He won Championing Diversity at the 2026 Referee Recognition Awards and was highly commended for refereeing in the community.

With Leonard, he built a dyspraxia referee course, first run in Nottingham, funded with FA support. The content is the standard course. The adaptation is the shape of the day: more breaks, and shorter spells in the classroom and outside, so participants rest and still come out qualified as referees. Leonard said that without the course, the people who attended would likely have left the game. Wilson and Leonard, backed by the FA Reflective and Representative campaign, are now preparing a wider version for other neurodivergent conditions. Club community organisations have already asked to host it.

Saturday takeaway: An adapted course is the full qualification, delivered in smaller pieces. If someone on your pathway needs that shape of day, point them at the county and at Wilson and Leonard's model. The standard elements stay in.