Organiser guide
What to do when your football match needs a referee
A missing official can become urgent quickly. First establish who is responsible for appointments under your league or cup rules. Then make the fixture easy for a suitable referee to assess, use the routes available to your competition and confirm the arrangement clearly.
Check the competition's process first
If an appointed referee withdraws or has not been allocated, contact your league or competition's appointments contact and check its current rules. Procedures for replacement officials, volunteer referees, postponement and reporting differ between competitions. Do not assume that an informal agreement between teams makes a competitive fixture valid.
If the match is close, agree who will contact the opposition and who will tell the competition about any change. Keep the fixture date, venue and kick-off consistent across those conversations.
Prepare a brief a referee can decide from
Include the date and kick-off time, ground and postcode, competition, teams, age group, match format, referee requirement and match fee. Add useful access or arrival information once an appointment is confirmed. An incomplete brief can create extra messages when time is short.
For youth football, check the applicable safeguarding and eligibility requirements with your competition. If a referee supplies FA evidence, review it yourself: an upload on RefSorted is user-supplied evidence, not independent authentication or a suitability guarantee from RefSorted.
Seek cover and confirm it explicitly
Use the competition's appointments route and any approved club or County FA contacts. A team can also post a fixture directly on RefSorted for referee applications. Referees inspect the brief and apply; your team reviews the applications and confirms one referee. Posting does not guarantee an application or cover.
Once confirmed, check that the referee has the correct venue and kick-off, knows who to contact on arrival and understands the agreed fee. RefSorted shares match-contact details only with confirmed participants. The posting team sets the fee and pays the referee directly outside RefSorted; the pilot platform fee is £0.
If cover is still unavailable
Return to your competition's rules and appointments contact before deciding whether the match can proceed, must be postponed or needs another approved arrangement. Tell the opposition and relevant officials promptly. Avoid advertising the fixture as covered until a referee has actually confirmed.
For the product steps, see how posting, applications and confirmation work on RefSorted.