What is being questioned?
Every question in this scenario
The Equipment investigation scenario asks 10 questions and can reach 22 decisions. A walk answers only the ones its own answers lead to. This is the whole set, for reference and for revision.
1What is being questioned?
Nothing dangerous. Accessories are allowed if they are not dangerous and are safely and securely covered.
Answers: Something a player was wearing or using · The colours the teams or the goalkeeper wore · A slogan, statement or image · Electronic equipment or wearable tracking · A player leaving the field to fix their equipment
2What was it?
What reaches a referee during a match is usually an accessory, protective equipment, or a boot that has come off.
Answers: An accessory: jewellery, a wristband, tape · The compulsory kit itself · The captain's armband · A boot or shinguard came off during play · Protective equipment: gloves, headgear, a facemask · A head cover · The player refused to remove it, or wore it again
3Is the item dangerous?
Danger is the whole test, and Law 4 closes the obvious workaround in the next sentence.
Answers: Yes · No
4Which colours?
The colour rules are about being told apart. The undergarment rules are printed as bare requirements with no reason attached.
Answers: The two teams, or the goalkeepers · Undershirts, undershorts or tights
5Are both goalkeepers in the same colour with no other shirt available?
Law 4 prints what happens when the colours cannot be arranged, which it does for nobody else.
Answers: Yes · No
6What kind of slogan, statement or image?
The punishment is the competition's rather than the referee's. The incident is still the referee's.
Answers: Political, religious or personal · Offensive, insulting, abusive, provocative or derisory · A name, number, crest, or permitted advertising · Where it may appear, and who Law 4 reaches
7Who was using it?
The same act has completely different consequences depending only on who did it.
Answers: A player, substitute, substituted or sent-off player · A team official · Wearable tracking technology
8What is in question?
Play need not be stopped. The correction happens around the game rather than the game stopping for it.
Answers: What the player has to do about it · Coming back onto the field
9Did the player re-enter with the referee's permission?
Two duties, in order: have the equipment checked, and re-enter only with permission. This asks about the second.
Answers: Yes · No
10Was there interference?
The caution follows either way. The restart depends on whether the entry interfered with anything.
Answers: Yes · No
Every decision it can reach
Each one is where a walk ends, with the reasoning it prints. The clause behind a decision is cited on the decision itself, which you reach by walking to it.
Removed, and taping it is not an option
Dangerous items must be removed and not taped or covered. That sentence exists to close the workaround the previous one seems to offer: covering makes a safe accessory permissible and does nothing for a dangerous one. The referee must order the player to remove the item, or to leave the field of play at the next stoppage if the player is unable or unwilling to comply.
Permitted, if it is safely and securely covered
Accessories are permitted as long as they are not dangerous and are safely and securely covered. Two conditions, and the second one is what people forget: a wedding ring that is not dangerous still has to be covered properly, and a strip of tape hanging loose has not met it.
Five separate items, and the socks and shinguards carry conditions
The compulsory equipment comprises a shirt with sleeves, shorts, socks, shinguards and footwear. Two of them are qualified: tape or any material applied or worn externally on the socks must be the same colour as that part of the sock it covers, and shinguards must be made of a suitable material, be of an appropriate size to provide reasonable protection, and be covered by the socks. Players are responsible for the size and suitability of their shinguards, which puts that responsibility on them.
The competition's armband, or a single-coloured one
The team captain must wear the armband issued or authorised by the relevant competition organiser, or a single-coloured armband that may also carry the word captain or the letter C or a translation of it, which should also be a single colour. The armband is also one of the two places a permitted slogan may appear, and in some cases the only one.
Play on, and a goal scored before it is replaced still counts
A player whose footwear or shinguard is lost accidentally must replace it as soon as possible and no later than when the ball next goes out of play, and if before doing so the player plays the ball or scores a goal, the goal is awarded. So a boot coming off is not an offence and not a reason to stop play, and the goal from the player who lost it stands. Accidentally is the condition: this is not a licence to play on deliberately without a boot.
Permitted where it is non-dangerous
Non-dangerous protective equipment, for example gloves, headgear, facemasks and knee and arm protectors made of soft, lightweight padded material, is permitted, as are goalkeepers' caps and sports spectacles, and goalkeepers may wear tracksuit bottoms. The list is examples rather than a closed set, and non-dangerous is the condition every item on it has to keep meeting.
Five conditions, and the colour one binds the whole team
Head covers other than goalkeepers' caps must be black or the same main colour as the shirt, provided that players of the same team wear the same colour; be in keeping with the professional appearance of the player's equipment; not be attached to the shirt; not be dangerous to the wearer or any other player, for example an opening or closing mechanism around the neck; and not have any parts extending out from the surface. All five together, and the colour condition reaches beyond the individual to everyone in the team wearing one, which is the same reach the undershorts and tights rule has and which no other item in Law 4 carries.
Caution
A player who refuses to comply or wears the item again must be cautioned. Must, and it covers both halves: refusing in the first place, and putting the item back on after taking it off. The referee's order itself is not a card, so a player who simply removes the item has ended the matter.
The match is played anyway
If the two goalkeepers' shirts are the same colour and neither has another shirt, the referee allows the match to be played. Law 4 lets the match go ahead rather than leave it waiting on a shirt.
Distinguishable from each other and from the officials
The two teams must wear colours that distinguish them from each other and the match officials, and each goalkeeper must wear colours distinguishable from the other players and the match officials. The match officials are in both sentences, which is why a referee's change strip exists and why a goalkeeper in black is a problem rather than a style choice.
They must match what covers them
Undershirts must be a single colour which is the same colour as the main colour of the shirt sleeve, or a pattern or colours which exactly replicate the shirt sleeve. Undershorts and tights must be the same colour as the main colour of the shorts or the lowest part of the shorts, and players of the same team must wear the same colour. The sleeve is the reference for the top and the shorts for the bottom, and of the two it is the undershorts rule that reaches past the individual: a player may wear whichever undershirt matches their own sleeve. It is not the only team-wide colour rule in Law 4 though, since a head cover carries the same condition.
Not permitted, and the competition sanctions it
Equipment must not have any political, religious or personal slogans, statements or images, and players must not reveal undergarments that show them. Religious and personal are relatively easily defined and political is less clear, so Law 4 lists what political covers: any person living or dead unless part of the official competition name, any political party, organisation or group at any level, any government or its departments, offices or functions, any discriminatory organisation, any organisation whose aims or actions are likely to offend a notable number of people, and any specific political act or event. Where a significant national or international event is commemorated, the sensibilities of the opposing team, its supporters and the general public should be carefully considered.
Not permitted, and Law 12 is why
When interpreting whether a slogan, statement or image is permissible, note should be taken of Law 12, which requires the referee to take action against a player guilty of using offensive, insulting or abusive language or actions, or acting in a provocative, derisory or inflammatory way. Any slogan, statement or image falling into either category is not permitted. So this route is not decided under Law 4 at all: the referee's power comes from Law 12. What that power is differs between the two categories and Law 4 prints neither. Offensive, insulting or abusive language or action is on Law 12's sending-off list, and acting in a provocative, derisory or inflammatory way appears in Law 12 only among the goal celebrations, where the player must be cautioned even if the goal is disallowed. So Ruleside reads the second half of the sentence Law 4 points at as a caution rather than a red card: Law 4 itself prints no sanction for either.
Usually permitted
The following are usually permitted: the player's number, name and team crest or logo, initiative slogans or emblems promoting the game of football, respect and integrity, any advertising permitted by competition rules or by national association, confederation or FIFA regulations, and the facts of a match, meaning the teams, date, competition or event and venue. Usually is the Laws' own word, and competition rules may add further restrictions on size, number and position.
The shirt front or the armband, and it reaches the bench too
Permitted slogans, statements or images should be confined to the shirt front or the armband, and in some cases might only appear on the captain's armband. Law 4 applies to all equipment including clothing worn by players, substitutes and substituted players, and its principles also apply to all team officials in the technical area. It is recommended that disputes about slogans be resolved before a match or competition takes place rather than on the day.
Not permitted at all, except approved tracking
Players, including substitutes, substituted and sent-off players, are not permitted to wear or use any form of electronic or communication equipment, except where wearable tracking technology is allowed. There is no threshold and no exception for something small or switched off: the prohibition is on wearing or using it.
Permitted for welfare or coaching, and only small handheld equipment
The use of any form of electronic communication by team officials is permitted where it directly relates to player welfare or safety or for tactical or coaching reasons, but only small, mobile, handheld equipment such as a microphone, headphone, earpiece, mobile phone, smartwatch, tablet or laptop may be used. A team official who uses unauthorised equipment, or who behaves inappropriately as a result of using electronic or communication equipment, will be sent off.
Permitted, and the competition organiser carries the responsibility
Where wearable technology as part of electronic performance and tracking systems is used in an official competition, the competition organiser must ensure the technology attached to the players' equipment is not dangerous and meets the requirements for wearable EPTS under the FIFA Quality Programme. Where the systems are provided by the match or competition organiser, that organiser is responsible for the information and data transmitted to the technical area being reliable and accurate. The duty sits with the organiser rather than with the referee or the player.
Leave to correct it, and play need not stop
For any offence, play need not be stopped and the player is instructed by the referee to leave the field of play to correct the equipment, leaving when play stops unless the equipment has already been corrected. So a player who fixes the problem where they stand never has to go off at all, and the game is not interrupted for equipment.
A correct return
The referee gave permission to re-enter, and that permission may be given during play rather than only at a stoppage, which is what stops an equipment correction costing a team a player for longer than the repair takes. The other duty runs alongside it: the equipment must be checked by a match official first. Law 4 attaches its caution to permission alone, so a player who is waved back on without a check has met the limb the Law sanctions and missed the one it does not.
Caution, and a direct free kick or penalty from the position of the interference
Where there was interference, a direct free kick, or a penalty kick if it was inside the offender's penalty area, is awarded from the position of the interference rather than from where the ball was. The caution applies either way. Law 3 locates its own version of this restart the same way, by the interference rather than by the ball, and stops at the direct free kick: the penalty kick limb is Law 4's alone, which is worth knowing because the two rules can be reached by the same player on the same walk back onto the field.
Caution, and an indirect free kick from where the ball was
A player who enters without permission must be cautioned, and if play is stopped to issue the caution, an indirect free kick is awarded from the position of the ball when play was stopped. Note the condition on the free kick: it follows only if play is stopped to issue the caution, so a referee who waits for the next stoppage awards nothing.