Individual Answers

Peter Roberts, England

Why do we permit stewards and police to wear the same colours as the Assistant Referee's flag? The idea of fluorescent flags was to see them out of the corner of your eye, something that cannot occur on ground layouts such as at Barrow, where stewards in the stand are at raised flag level.

The stewards don't run up and down the line plus the officials are all hooked up with an ear-piece and a mic so that if the referee does miss a flag they can be advised through the ear-piece.

Steven Baskett, Australia

What is better to referee with? Just the whistle or whistle with a lanyard? I see all the England referees with the lanyard and the Australian and Italian referees with just the whistle.

I use the whistle and the lanyard and prefer it to be wrapped around my wrist in case I lose it on the pitch.

Dave Duffett, England

If you have not seen an incident involved misconduct you are able to act on it the help of your colleagues and the Fourth Official so that the appropriate action can then take place. Why is the Fourth Official not allowed to assist if he sees a goal scored that is missed by the referee?

The rule is very clear that the Fourth Official can only act if a violent conduct situation has been missed by the referee or his two assistants.

Damien Hogan, England

Hello i am wondering what sort of psychology training referee's have to undergo?

We are fortunate to have a psychologist who attends meetings with all the referees at our get together, each session is different and along with one to ones is of great benefit. Body language and decision making are just a few of the subjects that are discussed in great depth.