If you’ve visited the US Soccer referee downloads section lately, you might have noticed the absence of the “Advice to Referees” document.

I’ve been informed by Rick Eddy, Director of Referee Development at US Soccer, that publication of “Advice to Referees” has been discontinued. Going forward, says Rick, referees should depend solely on the FIFA publication “Interpretations of the Laws of the Game and Guidelines for Referees” (better known among referees as simply the “Interpretations”).

No further explanation was offered by Mr. Eddy (and to be fair, I didn’t ask).

The Interpretations can be found as the last section of the Laws of the Game document, which is available in the Downloads section of this website.  Exclusively on this site, you will find the LOTG in three formats: PDF, ePub (a popular eBook format), and Kindle.  You can also find the final edition of “Advice to Referees” on the Downloads page.  Use it at your own risk!

For those of you following from outside the USA, the “Advice to Referees” was very similar to the “Interpretations”, but with many more examples and explanations, published by the Referee Education department of the US Soccer Federation.