Referee and Assistant Referee Signals Explained
Referees communicate with 22 players, two benches and thousands of fans mostly through gestures. Once you know the signals, you can understand a decision before the replay appears.
Referee signals
| Signal | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Arm pointing horizontally in one direction | Direct free kick to the team attacking that way. |
| Arm raised straight up and held | Indirect free kick. The arm stays up until the ball touches another player or goes out. |
| Both arms stretched forward, palms up | Advantage: play continues despite a foul. See the advantage rule. |
| Arm pointing to the penalty mark | Penalty kick. |
| Arm pointing to the corner arc | Corner kick. |
| Arm pointing to the goal area | Goal kick. |
| Card held up towards a player | Yellow card (caution) or red card (sending-off). |
| Drawing a rectangle in the air with both hands | A VAR review has taken place and the decision is changing, or the referee is going to the screen. |
| Finger pressed to the earpiece | The referee is listening to the VAR, often while a check is in progress. |
Referees also use the whistle with different strength: a short, sharp blast for a routine foul, a long, loud one for a serious offence or a penalty, and three blasts or a long whistle to end the match.
Assistant referee flag signals
| Signal | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Flag raised straight up, then lowered to point across the field | Offside. Pointing up at an angle means the far side of the pitch, horizontal means the middle and pointing down means the near side. |
| Flag pointing up the touchline at 45 degrees | Throw-in to the team attacking in that direction. |
| Flag pointing down at the corner arc | Corner kick. |
| Flag held horizontally towards the goal area | Goal kick. |
| Flag held horizontally above the head with both hands | Substitution requested. |
| Flag waved, then placed across the chest | Penalty offence seen by the assistant. |
| Flag raised and waved | Attracting the referee's attention, often for a foul the referee has not seen. |
The fourth official
The fourth official manages substitutions with an electronic board, shows the minimum added time at the end of each half and helps control behaviour in the technical areas. Read how stoppage time is calculated.
Delayed flags and VAR
In competitions with VAR, assistants are instructed to delay raising the flag for close offside situations when a team is attacking. They wait until the move ends, so that a goal can be checked rather than wrongly stopped. That is why you sometimes see a flag go up only after the ball is in the net. See VAR explained.
Communication systems
At professional level, the whole refereeing team wears headsets, and some referees carry a watch that vibrates when the goal-line technology detects a goal. The gestures remain important because they tell players and spectators what has been decided.