Fourth Official's Guide to PSL Match Day Operations Senior 2026/27

Under NSL Handbook Rule 16, each club hands a completed team sheet to the referee at least 60 minutes before kick-off. It lists:

• the 11 starting players
• the 9 substitutes who may be used
• the 5 club officials for the team bench
• the 2 club officials for the two extra seats beside the bench

Changes are allowed until kick-off if the opposing captain, the referee and the match commissioner are told, but no one can be added who was not on the submitted sheet.

Also 60 minutes before kick-off, the referee and a representative of the other team inspect the registration cards of each team's players and officials in the dressing room, unless the commissioner and both teams agree a different time (Rule 15.6). Shirt numbers must match those on the team sheet (Rule 17.11).

NSL Handbook Rule 12:

• 5 club officials may sit on the team bench, and
• 2 more may sit on the two extra seats beside the bench

All of them must hold registration cards and be listed on the team sheet, and must show their cards when a match official asks. No other club official may be inside the perimeter demarcation during the match.

If a club has too many people, the match commissioner asks it to reduce the number. If it does not, those in excess may be removed by security and the club and officials are charged with misconduct.

The technical areas (Rule 14.9) are marked by the home club, are equidistant from the halfway line, seat 14 people per club (officials plus substitutes), and the home club chooses its side first. The team doctor and physiotherapist of the home club must sit on its bench (Rule 14.11.1).

Under Law 6.2, the fourth official's duties include:

• supervising the substitution procedure
• checking the equipment of players and substitutes
• supervising the replacement balls

The Law 3.3 procedure you supervise:

• the referee must be told before any substitution is made
• the outgoing player needs the referee's permission to leave and must go straight to the technical area or dressing room, taking no further part
• the substitute enters only after the outgoing player has left, at the halfway line, during a stoppage, and with the referee's signal
• the substitution is complete when the substitute enters the field; until then the team may still change its choice of substitute

Under NSL Handbook Rule 14.10, the home club must provide suitable substitution boards.

New for 2026/27 (Time-limited substitution protocol, Law 3): once the substitution board is shown, the player being substituted must be off the field within ten seconds, at the nearest point on the boundary line unless the referee indicates otherwise. If the referee inspects the substitute's equipment at the halfway line, the ten seconds start after that inspection.

If the player is too slow:

• they must still leave as quickly as possible
• the substitute may not enter yet, and play restarts
• the substitution cannot be cancelled and a different substitute cannot be used
• the substitute may enter only with the referee's signal at the first stoppage after one minute (running clock) has passed since the restart
• the player is cautioned only if the delay is excessive

With several substitutions at one stoppage, all outgoing players must be off within ten seconds of the board for the last substitution, and the board must not be delayed between them. The referee may count down the last five seconds with a raised hand, and may waive the limit for injury or safety reasons.

Named: the PSL team sheet lists the 11 starters and 9 substitutes (NSL Handbook Rule 16.2). A substitute not named before kick-off cannot take part (Law 3.3).

Used: Law 3.2 (2026/27) caps substitutes at five in any official competition, with the exact number set by the competition. Where a top-division competition allows five, each team has:

• a maximum of three substitution opportunities during play
• plus substitutions at half-time, which do not use up an opportunity

If both teams substitute at the same stoppage, it counts as an opportunity used by each. Several substitutions by one team at the same stoppage count as one opportunity.

Extra time (cup ties): unused substitutes and opportunities carry over. In the Carling Knockout, each club may also use one extra substitute and one extra opportunity in extra time (competition rule 6.3).

Concussion substitutes are a separate Laws option that applies only where the competition rules adopt it.

Under Law 7.3, the fourth official shows the minimum additional time decided by the referee at the end of the final minute of each half (and of each half of extra time). The referee may increase it but not reduce it.

The referee allows for time lost through:

• substitutions
• assessing and removing injured players
• time-wasting
• disciplinary sanctions
• drinks or cooling breaks permitted by competition rules
• VAR checks and reviews (where VAR is used)
• goal celebrations
• any other cause, including significant delays to a restart

The referee is the sole judge of time in PSL matches, which are 2 x 45 minutes with a 15-minute half-time interval (NSL Handbook Rule 13).

Law 6 makes informing the referee of irresponsible behaviour by any technical area occupant part of the fourth official's job. The referee then applies Law 12 (2026/27) to team officials:

Usually a warning (cards if repeated or blatant): entering the field respectfully, ignoring an instruction from an assistant referee or the fourth official, minor disagreement with a decision, occasionally leaving the technical area.

Caution (yellow card), for example: clearly or persistently not respecting the technical area, delaying a restart by their team, dissent (including throwing or kicking bottles, sarcastic clapping), persistently gesturing for cards, provocative behaviour.

Sending-off (red card), for example: leaving the technical area to remonstrate with a match official, entering the opposing technical area aggressively, throwing an object onto the field, entering the field to confront an official, offensive or abusive language, violent conduct, or a second caution.

If the offender in the technical area cannot be identified, the senior team coach present receives the sanction. Under Law 1, only one person at a time may give tactical instructions from the technical area.

A team official sent off is suspended under NSL Handbook Rule 53 and, while suspended, may not enter the perimeter demarcation or the tunnel (Rule 53.7).

Under the 2026/27 Off-field treatment and assessment protocol (Law 5), an outfield player must leave the field and stay off until one minute (running clock) after play restarts if play was stopped for their injury, the referee called the medical staff on, or the player asked for on-field attention.

• The player may return only with the referee's permission: from the touchline if the ball is in play, or from any boundary line if it is out of play.
• If the half ends before the minute is up, the player may return at the start of the next period.

The fourth official's Law 6 duties include supervising the re-entry of a player after a signal or approval from the referee.

Exceptions (the player need not leave): an injured goalkeeper; a goalkeeper and outfield player collision; team-mates colliding; a severe injury such as a head injury, cardiac issue or seizure; an injury from a foul for which the opponent is cautioned or sent off; or when the injured player will take an awarded penalty kick.

Changes to the team sheet are allowed before kick-off only if the opposing captain, the referee and the match commissioner are told, and no one may be added who was not on the submitted sheet (NSL Handbook Rule 16.3).

If a named substitute takes the field at kick-off instead of a named starter without that procedure being followed (Rule 16.4):

• the referee lets the substitute continue
• the team's number of substitutions is not reduced
• the club is charged with misconduct

This matches Law 3 of the IFAB Laws, under which the named player can then become a named substitute and the referee reports the incident to the authorities.

Under Law 6 of the IFAB Laws of the Game (2026/27), the "on-field" match officials (assistant referees and the fourth official):

• must submit a report to the appropriate authorities on any serious misconduct or other incident that happened out of view of the referee and the other match officials
• must tell the referee and the other match officials about any report they are making
• help the referee keep records of time, goals, misconduct and so on

Separately, the match commissioner (appointed by SAFA under NSL Handbook Rule 21) reports to the League and SAFA on each match, including an assessment of the match officials, whether the clubs complied with the Handbook, the state of the pitch, the ground and security. That report goes to both clubs within 72 hours (Rule 21.3).