Weekly refereeing review: 12–19 October 2026
From IFAB's restart-advantage reminder to Brentford's two pitchside reviews and the FA's new grassroots curriculum, the week that mattered for match officials.
Between 12 and 19 October the week that mattered for UK match officials was a law week that then had to survive a Premier League Saturday. IFAB restated when advantage applies to a botched restart, and set two pictures from the 2026/27 Laws. Pro Ref, the body that has taken on the work previously done as the Professional Game Match Officials, published the Matchweek 7 list and the latest international appointments. The FA pointed referees back to a curriculum that is now the grassroots education offer, and to officials whose routes into the game are part of that offer.
What officials should take from this week
- Play advantage on an incorrect restart when the ball is already in play and the opposing team will benefit. If that benefit does not arrive at that moment or within a few seconds, order the retake.
- Winning the ball and merely touching the ball are different tests. At Brentford, Darren England's review removed a penalty because Dango Ouattara played the ball. At Newcastle, Jarred Gillett's yellow stood because a touch can still be reckless. A headbutt before a corner is taken is violent conduct, and the corner remains the restart.
- Foundation and Perform are the phases being delivered now. Match control, dissent, foul recognition, DOGSO, tactical fouls, emotional control and wellbeing are the modules, and The FA says referee registration fees are being reinvested into that curriculum.
Advantage on a restart, once the ball is in play
On Tuesday, The IFAB set out the two conditions in plain language. The referee may apply advantage when a team incorrectly takes a restart if the ball is in play and the opposing team can benefit, for example by gaining possession. The situations IFAB named are an incorrect position at the restart, and a moving ball.
That matches the 2026/27 wording of Law 5. The referee allows play to continue when an offence occurs, or a restart is incorrectly taken and the ball is in play, and the non-offending opposing team will benefit. If the anticipated advantage does not ensue at that time or within a few seconds, the referee penalises the offence or orders the retake. The Law 5 text and the law-changes note both treat a free kick, a throw-in and the other restarts the same way: the ball has to have entered play.
On RefChat, the rolling-ball restart thread has been open since 31 August and was moving again on Monday morning. The useful part for a Saturday referee is the youth-football example colleagues keep returning to: a foul throw where possession changes anyway, and a retake would only stop the game. The same thread is honest about the edges still being argued, including a penalty that rolls off the spot. Those edges are why the two conditions matter more than a slogan.
On Friday, IFAB's own account answered a referee's question in the same spirit. The measure under discussion was brought in to stop time-wasting at all levels. A law will occasionally feel unfair. Football, they wrote, prefers a simple law to a list of exceptions and discretion.
Saturday takeaway: If the restart is wrong, the ball is in play, and the other team has a real benefit, play on. If that benefit disappears within a few seconds, come back and order the retake.
Two pictures from the 2026/27 Laws
IFAB spent the early part of the week on scenarios rather than circulars. On Monday the picture was a deflection off the referee. Team A kicks the ball towards a Team B player. It hits the referee and runs to another Team A player, who immediately starts a promising attack. The question is the one officials still mis-restart.
Law 9 answers it. Play stops. The restart is a dropped ball for one player of Team B, because Team B would have gained possession had the ball not hit the referee. The ball is dropped where it made contact with the referee.
On Wednesday the second picture was a deliberate handball. A defender handles in their own penalty area and keeps the ball out of the goal. The ball then runs to an attacker, who scores. Law 12 awards the goal. Advantage has already given the attacking team the goal the handball tried to prevent, so the defender is neither cautioned nor sent off. IFAB posed that one directly.
Saturday takeaway: A deflection off you that takes a promising attack away from the team about to receive the ball is a dropped ball for that team, at the point of contact. A deliberate handball that is then overtaken by a goal is a goal, and the card falls away.
Brentford, and the rest of the Match Centre tape
Pro Ref confirmed the Matchweek 7 appointments on Monday's list, and posted them again on Wednesday. Brentford v Liverpool on Saturday was John Brooks, with Neil Davies and Akil Howson on the lines, Anthony Backhouse as fourth official, Darren England on VAR and Gary Beswick as assistant VAR. Liverpool's club note carried the same crew.
The Premier League Match Centre tape, collated on Sunday, is the document to keep. In the 41st minute Brooks awarded Liverpool a penalty after Alexis Mac Allister went down under Dango Ouattara. England's recommendation was specific: "He plays the ball. Red No.11 clearly wins the ball." After the on-field review Brooks's final decision was no penalty.
In the 45th minute plus eight, the second review produced a red card. Brooks's words, as carried by the Match Centre: "After review, the Brentford No.6 commits a headbutting action. The final decision is a red card." Yehor Yarmoliuk was dismissed for violent conduct against Jeremy Jacquet. ESPN's review of the incident records the restart point officials were arguing in the ground: the clash happened before the corner was taken, the ball was out of play, and the original corner remained the restart.
The same tape holds the companion clips. At Newcastle, Jarred Gillett's yellow for Sven Botman's challenge on Nicolas Jackson was checked and confirmed. Gillett's line was: "I think it's reckless. Even though you get a touch on the ball, it's still reckless." At Manchester City v Ipswich, a penalty was awarded after review because the attacker played the ball and only then suffered a careless foul by Manchester City's No.6.
Saturday takeaway: "He won the ball" and "he got a touch" are different sentences. Use the Brentford wording when the defender clearly plays the ball. Use the Newcastle wording when the touch is still reckless. A headbutt before the restart is a red card, and the restart you already had stays the restart.
One curriculum, four phases
The FA launched the National Refereeing Curriculum on 9 October. On Wednesday FA Refereeing pointed officials back to it. The FA article is the piece to read, because the post is only the signpost.
Delivered through FA Learning, the curriculum is a single education route across grassroots football in England, phased as Foundation, Perform, Compete and Excel. Foundation and Perform are being delivered first. Compete follows in November and Excel in December. The online modules named in the launch are Match Control, Handling Dissent, Foul Recognition, DOGSO, Tactical Fouls, Emotional Control and Wellbeing, with face-to-face workshops beside them. The Grassroots to Greatness webinars will follow the same curriculum.
Marc Birkett, FA Senior Referee Manager for grassroots referee development, said the shape came from consultation with the referee workforce, and that registration fees will be reinvested into the curriculum so online learning, face-to-face work and practical delivery sit on one pathway. County FAs are being given resources so the local offer matches that national one.
Saturday takeaway: If you are in Foundation or Perform, this is the syllabus your developer is now working from. Dissent, DOGSO and tactical fouls are in it on purpose. Ask which phase you are in, and do that phase's module before the next observers' meeting.
The officials The FA chose to talk about
Monday's long read, for Dyspraxia Awareness Week, is Ali Wilson and Peter Leonard at Westmorland FA. Wilson, 20, has a chromosome deletion with dyspraxia-like symptoms. Four years after taking up the whistle he has refereed a Westmorland FA County Cup final and run the line in the Women's FA Cup. With Leonard he built a referee course that keeps every element of the standard course and breaks the classroom and the pitch into shorter blocks, with more rest. His line is the one to keep: participants come out as referees. At the 2026 Referee Recognition Awards he won Championing Diversity and was highly commended for Refereeing in the Community. They are now widening the course to other neurodivergent participants. FA Refereeing's post pointed to the same conversation.
On Tuesday the FA wrote up the Asian Football Awards, held at Syon Park on 29 September. Abid Hussain won the Match Official Award. Mo Matadar received the Special Recognition Award for Services to Officiating. FA Refereeing had congratulated both the day the piece went live.
Two further FA Refereeing posts belong in the same pathway note. On Monday the account reported the first Women's FA CORE camp of the season, held the previous weekend, with on-field work and classroom learning in one camp. On Thursday the Play Safe post was aimed at anyone developing young referees: listen, check in, and make it possible for them to speak freely. On Wednesday the same account congratulated amputee-football referee Juliette Forgham on her selection for the inaugural EAFF Conference League in Bucharest, played on 23–25 September.
Saturday takeaway: The course Wilson and Leonard run still qualifies referees. Shorter blocks are an adaptation of the course, and the badge at the end is the same badge. If you mentor young officials, Play Safe this week was a reminder to let them talk.
English officials on UEFA and FIFA duty
The domestic lists landed together. Premier League Matchweek 7 on Wednesday, the EFL appointments on Friday, and FA Cup featured appointments on Friday afternoon. The international list had already gone out on Tuesday.
Two names on that international side of the week are worth knowing before next Saturday. On Wednesday Pro Ref confirmed that Nicoleta Bria has been selected for the FIFA Women's U-17 World Cup in Morocco, which runs from 17 October to 7 November. Appointment round-ups list her as assistant referee for Morocco v Germany on Tuesday 20 October.
On Sunday, English referee Michael Oliver was reported as the referee for Paris Saint-Germain v Barcelona in the Champions League, also on Tuesday, at the Parc des Princes. Foot Africa named the on-field team as Oliver with Stuart Burt and James Mainwaring as assistants and Robert Jones as fourth official, with Italy's Marco Di Bello on VAR and Daniele Chiffi alongside him. Oliver refereed the reverse fixture in Barcelona on 1 October 2025. Deadline Day Live carried the same appointment.
Saturday takeaway: Read the list you are actually on, and then note the two English appointments just outside this window. Bria is on the line in Morocco on Tuesday. Oliver, Burt, Mainwaring and Jones are the on-field team for PSG v Barcelona the same night.
Sources
The IFAB
The FA and England Football
Premier League and Pro Ref
RefChat