Referee Education and Resources
British Fencing is responsible for the Refereeing Syllabus in the UK. The responsibility for running referee courses in the UK is shared between BF and the Home Country Associations.
Referee Qualifications
There are 4 levels of refereeing summarised in the Referee Journey Info-graph and below;
- Level 1 (Club refereeing), information on the level 1 introduction to refereeing seminar can be found here
- Level 2 (Local Competition), information on the level 2 regional referee assessment and mentoring process can be found here
- Information on the Level 1 and 2 referee qualification processes can be found here
- Level 3 (National Competition, Pathway level and International EFC competitions). Information on the Level 3 process can be found here.
- Level 4 & FIE (National Competition and FIE Satellite, Junior World Cup and Grand Prix competitions). Information on the Level 4 exam process can be found here. Level 4 is the highest domestic refereeing qualification and is where referees for the final rounds of the National Championships will be drawn from.
- Domestic wheelchair refereeing has recently been added as an to the level 1 and 2 referee courses, further information can be found here
Referee Courses and Exams
Home Nations Level 2 Referee Training Expression of Interest form
Level 3 Referee Training Application form
Referee Register
British Fencing is also responsible for maintaining the register of active Referees and their qualifications. You can find the latest referee register and how to become a registered referee here.
Referee Resources
There are also some helpful tools and resources for referees:
Referee Pre-Course Reading (last updated 2019)
British Fencing Rules App – updated currently not active January 2023
FIE Sanctions Cheat Sheet – update July 2020
British Fencing Rule Book
Referee Hand Signals
Online Video Resources
You can also watch as many international refereeing video clips as possible:
Or participate, review or upload contentious matches here: