Questions refs ask
Everything about fees, promotion, the Laws quiz, integrations and your data.
Getting started
A match, fee and promotion tracker built by a referee for grassroots referees in England. Log a match in 15 seconds, see who still owes you, chase them politely and watch your promotion targets fill up.
Just the teams, date, kick-off and your role. Fee, league, competition and venue are optional — add them now or later from the match page.
Promotion tracking covers the men's pathway from Level 7 to Level 4 and the women's pathway to Level 3W. Level 7 → 6 is free; every other pathway is part of Pro. The Laws quiz covers Level 9 to Level 4.
No. penalty.app is an independent project, built by a referee. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by The FA, the Referees' Association, RefSix, CentreCircle or Full-Time.
Pricing & plans
Yes. Match logging, payment tracking, expenses, season stats, the Laws quiz and CSV export are free forever, with no cap on matches. Pro (£3.90/month or £39/year) adds fixture sync, auto mileage, tax-year reports and more. Everything is free until 30 December 2026.
One of the first 150 referees to sign up before 30 December 2026. Founding members keep every Pro feature free, for life.
Nothing is deleted. Your matches, payments and history stay, and everything in Free keeps working. Pro features pause until you subscribe, after a 30-day Pro trial — founding members keep Pro.
No. Sign up with Google or a magic link. You only add payment details if you choose Pro.
Cancel any time in Settings. If you change your mind within 14 days of first subscribing, you get a full refund. Otherwise unused time isn't refunded, except for billing errors.
Matches & payments
Tap 'Chase payment' on an unpaid match. A polite, pre-written message with the match details and amount owed is copied to your clipboard — paste it into WhatsApp, email or text. Each chase is logged.
Yes. Mark a match as cancelled to track the lost fee, or as abandoned to record the reason and prepare a report for the league.
Yes. Tournaments have their own fee structure and match count, and appear in your earnings alongside league fixtures.
Yes. The Reports section turns your details into clear, FA-ready misconduct text you can copy into the FA's systems.
Promotion
Pick your level and your FA targets fill in automatically. Every match you log counts towards them — games as referee, adult games, AR games and observations. Only matches you've played count; upcoming ones show as booked.
Yes. Turn on 'This match doesn't count for promotion' on the match page.
No. It's based on the matches you record and the targets you set — not an official decision from your FA.
Laws of the Game quiz
Targeted quiz sessions for your level (L9 to L4): 10 questions per quiz from 130+ questions written to IFAB and FA standards, covering all 17 Laws, with an optional time limit.
penalty.app tracks which questions you've seen and always prioritises new ones, filtered by your level and topic, before repeating any.
20 badges: milestones, perfect scores, mastering a specific Law, streaks and speed.
Integrations
Yes — in early access. Connect CentreCircle and your appointments import automatically, up to 12 weeks ahead.
Yes, on Pro. Connect to the FA's Full-Time system and your allocated games sync in, with duplicate detection.
Yes, on Pro. Send a match to RefSix in one tap.
Yes, on Pro and for founding members. You connect your account yourself and can disconnect any time. The AI can't delete your data or change your settings.
The app
Yes — penalty.app is on the App Store and Google Play. It uses the same account as the web app, which works in any modern browser.
Not yet. penalty.app needs an internet connection to save your matches.
Yes. In Settings you can switch off Promotion, Expenses and the Laws quiz to hide them from the menu.
Data & privacy
Your data is stored with Google Firebase over encrypted connections. Only you can see your matches in the app; we only look at your account to help when you ask for support.
Yes, any time. Export your full match history to CSV for free. Pro adds a ready-made tax-year report.
Go to Settings and choose Delete account, or email hello@penalty.app. Your data is permanently removed within 30 days.
Your data stays as long as your account exists. We don't delete inactive accounts automatically.
