Choosing a new studs.

When deciding which pair of football shoes you are going to wear you are not only having to decide which style of shoes best fit your feet, or which football boots will give you the best control of the ball, you also have to decide if the boots will be approved by the referee before he lets you onto the playing field.

It doesn’t seem that long ago when football shoes resembled hobnailed building boots. They were a proper boot that wrapped itself round your foot and half way up your leg. They even had steel toe caps. You could never tell the difference between football boots and rugby boots except that rugby boots had less studs than football boots for some reason.

Football boots have come a long way since those days, today the development of football boots is akin to a science. They are a technically engineered piece of football equipment and in the professional game engineered to specific player’s feet. They can look like a fashion trainer or even fashion shoes.

Football boots have always been in the press for one reason or another, whether its Wayne Rooney’s broken foot or because some player has been injured by some new football boots designed studs cutting a gash in an opposition player’s leg. What a lot of people do not know is that football boots are governed by rule 4 of the Football Associations rules of play and it is the responsibility of players to abide by this rule and the responsibility of referees not to let players onto the pitch if they consider rule 4 to be broken.

Rule 4 states;
"A player must not use equipment or wear anything which is dangerous to himself or another player including any kind of jewellery."

Match Officials are to incorporate a shoes inspection into their pre-match safety check of players’ equipment. This will take place before entry to the field of play immediately prior to the game.

Poorly maintained studs or blades on the soles of football boots can constitute a danger.

The Referee’s decision is final and players in contravention of this Law must not be allowed to enter the field of play.
So beware when next choosing your football boots, take a look at the sole, are those studs or blades going to last more than a game or two before they become illegal?