Norsk Test and the Football Association of Norway: 15 years of testing football referees
Norsk Test has worked with the Football Association of Norway (NFF) on testing Norwegian football referees since 2012. Through annual rules tests and professional follow-up, the scheme helps ensure that Norwegian referees maintain a high standard – something recently underlined when referee Espen Eskås and assistant referees Isaak Bashevkin and Jan Erik Engan were selected for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Many people notice referees when they make mistakes, but few think about how much work lies behind the job. Every football referee – from trainee referees to top referees – must show each year that they master the current Laws of the Game in order to officiate matches. The annual football referee test is therefore an important part of referee education in Norway.
Common requirements for referees across the country
The football referee test is based on the NFF's regulations and covers all 17 Laws of the Game. The questions are drawn from different parts of the Laws to ensure broad coverage. The aim is not only to decide whether a referee passes, but also to identify areas where more learning and follow-up are needed.
Testing is therefore an important part of a wider course of development. The NFF's regional football associations follow up their referees with seminars, courses and professional guidance throughout the year. Together, training and testing help strengthen the quality of referee development in Norway.
The regional associations had followed up their referees and referee coaches with their own tests and their own approval procedures. That lasted until 2012, when we got a common IT platform that made it possible to harmonise this across all the regional associations.
With the solution from Norsk Test, the NFF can have every football referee in the country answer the same theory questions and pass against common national requirements. This ensures that everyone is tested in the same way, which in turn helps make the application of the Laws as consistent as possible. Our experience has been so good that we support expanding it with a separate player test, a practice test for young referees, and varying difficulty depending on the referee's level.
The football referee test moves to Yerbu
From 2026 the football referee test runs in Yerbu, Norsk Test's own system for exams, certification and skills assessment.
The platform brings the question bank, test delivery, candidate administration, statistics and reporting together in one solution. This makes it easier to develop the tests further when the Laws change, while giving both administrators and candidates a more modern user experience.
New rules ahead of the 2026 World Cup
The Laws of the Game are updated regularly, and several changes have been introduced internationally ahead of the 2026 World Cup. Among the topics that have drawn the most attention are measures against long stoppages in play (for example at substitutions, throw-ins and goal kicks).
For referees, this means their knowledge has to be kept up to date. At the same time, it is precisely the unusual situations that often separate good referees from the very best. While the rules on goals, free kicks and offside are basic knowledge, many test questions deal with rare incidents that call for a thorough knowledge of the Laws.
Norsk Test continuously analyses the test results to make sure the questions are of high quality and actually measure what they are meant to measure. In this way, the tests contribute both to learning and to a fairer assessment of the candidates.
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