This weeks update is slightly later than usual (just over a week later) as there was a few things that I wanted to wait for and to include in this update.
We are now 2 full months into the 2025/26 season and football has officially started after some weeks of pre-season fixtures we have seen the commencement of Step 5 and Step 6 football locally in the Combined Counties Football League and Step 4 and above will be starting over the next week or so.
With the majority of you all still looking forward to more pre-season as grassroots football does not normally commence until September, please enjoy your break, rest, recharge and make sure you prepare yourself well for when your season does start.
There are a few things below to take note of, please have a read through everything, if any of you have any questions as always please do not hesitate to contact us at referee@middlesexfa.com where we will be more than happy to assist you.
Referee Registration
There are still a number of you that are not registered for the new 2025/26 season. Currently we have 405 of you registered for this season and that leaves 269 of you still not re-registered. I'm aware of a few that are not planning on re-registering, however if you are still planning on re-registering please ensure you do ASAP by visiting https://referees.thefa.com
Please remember that you need to have your Safeguarding for All in date to register, if it's out of date you can re-take this HERE
Promotion
Thank you to everyone that has applied to be on the Referee Progression Pathway for the 2025/26 season 1st August window. I'm delighted to say that we have;
Level 5-4 - 12 Officials
Level 4W - 3W - 3 Officials
Level 6-5 - 10 Official
Level 7-6 - 19 Officials
Level Y1-Y2 - 1 Official
With this in mind, we will need to carry out around 70 visits to match officials over the coming months and for this reason we will look to hold some Match Day Coaching training in the near future so that we can recruit a few more officials to help develop our up and coming officials. More information on this will follow over August & September.
We are now currently not accepting any more applications onto the Referee Progression Pathway and will contact everyone
We are now currently not accepting any more applications onto the Referee Progression Pathway and will contact everyone over the coming weeks to detail the application process to join the scheme for Level Y1, 7 & 6's at the end of October 2025.
Any Level 5's that wish to join the 5-4 scheme will not need to wait until December 2025 and anyone wishing to join the women's pathway will need to wait until next season.
Match Official Academy Programme
Following an intense selection process that involved an initial application form, Fitness Assessment, Laws of the Game Test and Decision Making Test we have selected 12 individuals that will form the Match Official Academy Programme for the 2025/26 Season.
Lead by our coaching team of Daryl Ann, Steve Daly, Alfie Finch-Critchley, Andy Tooley, Steve Williams and Steve Conway the 19 match officials are;
Level 4's: Arial Ward, Nima Hosseinali and Mohammed Shahib Shohel
Level 5's: Andre Johnson-Small, Thomas Fonde, Ben Wong and Simon Smith
Level 6's: Harry Sweales, Daniel Wong and Harry Jacobs
Level 7's: Kieran Tooley, Gemma Day, Maxwell Smith and Zaky Ellis
Level Y1's: Owen Miall-Smith, Nash Joe George, Dhruv Jaidka, Louis Juniper and Harley Brannan
These match officials will be exposed to monthly development that will involved both theory and practical elements and will be exposed to a level of football that will offer them development and assistance in their future progression within Refereeing.
FA Appointments
Over the course of the season, the FA have the ability to appoint match officials to the early rounds of the FA Cup, FA Vase, FA Trophy, FA Youth Cup, FA Women's Cup and FA Sunday Cup. The initial rounds of appointments have been released and I'm delighted to say that several of our match officials are on games that commence this weekend. Good luck to them all, a list of appointments can be found below on the link and I will update this link throughout the season with any further appointments that are released.
Of course with appointments changing, if anyone is missing from the list on the link below, please email me the details of the game/s that you are on and your role and I will get this added for the next update.
Referee Communication Kits
Recently we have seen an increase across England with individuals using communication kits. To make it clear, the kits are designed for match officials operating at Step 2 and above in the Men's game and Tier 2 and above in the Women's game. There are some exceptions, however these are to be directed by the County FA and The FA.
Should you feel the need to want to wear a communication kit in a game please email and request permission first from Middlesex FA Refereeing Department.
Referee Kits
We wanted to remind everyone that Kit can be purchased via our Partners The Ref Stop. They offer next day delivery on all orders that are placed before 15:00 and they have a wide range of kits and equipment that suits everyone's needs from grassroots to Premier League.
Referee Courses
Over the course of August and September we have three referee courses that are taking place that will see us recruit around 80ish match officials. They will be out and about across the County FA taking part in our local leagues fixtures wearing the Middlesex FA badge so please be sure to introduce yourself to another Middlesex official if you don't already know them!
History Made - All Female Leadership Team
I'm delighted to announce that Middlesex FA has recently appointed a new Chair. Please visit https://www.middlesexfa.com/news/2025/jul/30/all-female-leadership-team for full details.
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