The FA sets the annual registration fee for all referees. It is currently £20.

You need to register between the 1st June and the 1st August each year. If you miss the deadline you may have to pay a late registration fee of £10.

New referees are automatically registered by the County when they complete the referee course. This registration is only valid until the following May 31st when that registration will expire. All new referees will then have to register with the Amateur FA for the first full season as a referee.

When you register you will be asked whether you intend to referee in youth football. If you do and you are 16-years-old or older, you will need a DBS dated within the last three years.

If you do not intend to referee in youth football but later change your mind, it is most important that you contact your parent County FA (Amateur FA) immediately and we will make arrangements with you to update your DBS if necessary.

If you were previously qualified but have not registered in one or more previous seasons we will be very pleased to help you back into refereeing. Please contact referees@amateur-fa.com 

Non Amateur FA referees can always register with the Amateur FA as an Associate but first you will need to register with your parent county first. 

Associates are eligible for appointments to Amateur FA County Cup matches and you will receive all the communications that Amateur FA parent County referees receive including newsletters and invitations to training sessions and other events.

Similarly, Amateur FA referees can register as Associates with other local County FAs at no cost. You can do this when you register online by completing the section ‘Request to Join Associate County’.

If you do not register, you will not be able to be appointed to matches by any competition affiliated to the FA or the County FA. You would not be covered by the County’s Public Liability Insurance and there would be no chance of receiving County Cup Final or Representative Match appointments.

There would also be no opportunity for promotion, no communications from your County FA (newsletters and invitations to training and other events), you would not receive any information on updates/amendments to the Laws of the Game annually and you would not receive a County handbook. Your details will not appear in the County handbook.

After two years of being unregistered, you would have to take the exams again if you wanted to re-register and after five years you would have to take the whole course again.

As an unregistered referee, you would only be able to referee as a 'club referee' and be appointed to games by a home club if no registered referee is appointed by a competition. Naturally, this would limit where you could referee and the level of game you would be offered.