Soccer Referee Gear

Have you ever wondered what kind of soccer referee gear you need before starting your referee carrier? In this article we will take a look at what gear is a must to perform well as a soccer referee.

So, what is the most essential parts of the referee gear kit?
The referee gear includes following parts:

- Referee uniform kit (includes jerseys, shorts and socks)

- One or more referee whistles

- A notice card

- Red and yellow cards

- A sport watch

- A bag

Usually, a soccer uniform is black and white, but it is a good practice to have several referee uniforms available. A team may wear same color as the referee and it would be hard for the players to identify who the referee actually is, don’t you agree? So, to avoid unnecessary complications, always control the color of your jersey before leaving for the game.

Another important part of your referee gear is the whistle. Without a whistle, a match would be chaotic because players would never know how to behave (for example under a foul break). Of course, it is possible to perform a game without a whistle, but is nothing to recommend, believe me I know : - )

A notice card is also an essential part of your referee gear. As a soccer referee you must always keep notice on the players that has been punished with yellow or red card, the scorer's and other small notice as well (like how many substitutes has been made). Therefore, your notice card is very important and without it you will need to remember all details from the game.

This will of course be impossible if you don't have some super skills. Let’s say that a match ends with 10 yellow cards, 2 reds, and 8 different scorers. Try to keep all this information in your head and you will have a clear picture of why a notice card is so important.

If a player don’t understand what you are trying to say to him (ex: stop pushing other players, keep your mouth closed and so on) belive me when I say that everyone on the soccer field will understand the language of the yellow and red card. This doesn’t mean that you should punish every player with a yellow or red card as soon as they break against rules but sometimes you need to show who the boss is. If you punish a player with a yellow card he/she will know that calming down is a must if he/she want to stay on the field.

Having a good watch is also important. I usually prefer to have a sport watch because it is pretty easy to keep an eye on how many seconds should be added at the end of every half. Older and used watches would also work fine, but a sport watch is pretty cheap comparing to what you get and you may do not want to risk your Rolex (a bit of humor here) watch, especially under hard weather circumstances.

A bag is not necessary for your referee gear, but I would recommend you to get one because it is very usable and handy. What type of bag you should buy is hard to say, but if you have many private items beside your referee gear, look for a bigger model.