Inspect before anyone plays

The direct answer: walk the full pitch — every area players will use — and check the seven things below. If any safety item fails and cannot be genuinely fixed before kick-off, stop and escalate to the match official with what you found. This checklist is guidance for the person inspecting; the formal decision about play always rests with the match official.

The checklist

• Surface. Natural grass in playable condition — this checklist covers grass only; artificial surfaces follow their own criteria.
• Standing water. None on the playing surface. Patches that clear with forking and brushing need re-checking before kick-off; widespread water is a stop. The full wet-day sequence is in the waterlogged-pitch guide.
• Firmness and footing. Walk goalmouths and the centre channel; players must be able to turn and stop. Unsafe footing is a stop, not a note.
• Debris and holes. Glass, stones, animal damage, sunken areas. Minor debris gets cleared and re-checked; hazardous objects or holes are a stop until made safe.
• Goals and nets. Frames sound, fixings and anchors secure, nets attached and intact. The seasonal guidance makes goal checks a weekly habit in use — matchday is the final check, not the first. Unsafe goals are an absolute stop.
• Line visibility. Lines clear enough to referee by. Faint lines are a fix-if-time job — the marking session routine covers doing it properly.
• Weather judgement. Not just now, but the next two hours. Deteriorating conditions mean agreeing a re-inspection time with the official; severe conditions are a stop regardless of the surface.

Recording the inspection

An inspection that is not recorded protects nobody. The interactive tool walks these same observations, returns one of three clear outcomes — ready, needs action, stop and escalate — and prints an observation record naming what was seen and when. On paper, this page prints as a tick-sheet: the checklist and escalation rules survive the print layout.