Frequently asked questions

Yes. REF! is built to be refereed from your wrist: the stopwatch, goals, cards with shirt numbers, substitutions and stoppage time are all controlled from the Apple Watch, and that is also where your physical metrics come from (distance, sprints, heart rate and heat map). Without a watch you can still use the iPhone to manage matches, teams, statistics and earnings — but you miss exactly what makes REF! different.

An iPhone running iOS 18 or later and an Apple Watch running watchOS 10.6 or later. You sign in with Sign in with Apple, and the app is designed in dark mode.

The whole match: start and pause the stopwatch, manage periods and stoppage time, log goals with a single gesture, record yellow and red cards with the player's shirt number, and make substitutions in three taps. Swipe up to see the full list of match events, and every action is confirmed with haptics so you never have to look at the screen.

Distance covered, top speed, pace, heart rate and heart rate zones, plus your heat map of the pitch built from GPS. Every match is also saved as a workout in Apple Health, with its route and metrics, so nothing is missing from your training history.

Yes. While you referee, your iPhone shows the match live with a Live Activity on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, and there is a Home Screen widget with your next fixture. When the match ends, the watch sends the result and every event to the iPhone; if the two aren't in range at that moment, the transfer is queued and completes on its own as soon as they reconnect.

Yes. REF! is fully functional offline: you can referee, record the entire match, browse your history and track your earnings even if the ground has no coverage. Only the social features (inviting someone to a match, accepting an invitation or editing your profile) need a connection, and the app clearly tells you when something is still pending instead of assuming it went through.

REF! is free, and you can referee with it from day one with no limit on matches: the full watch experience, stopwatch, events, Live Activity, widget, match metrics, heart rate zones, month and season statistics and local backup.

REF! PRO is an optional subscription (€2.99 per month or €16.99 per year, with the first month free) that adds the heat map, all-time and custom-range statistics, the social features, exportable earnings reports, tournament mode and personalisation. We never limit a match in progress or the number of matches, and there are no ads under any circumstances.

Yes. You can invite your officiating team to a match (main referee and assistants): each of you records your own performance and the app shows all three sets of statistics, combined heat maps and the awards for that game — who ran the most, who was fastest and who kept the coolest head. You can also add friends and follow their activity.

Yes. Competitions are fully configurable: number of periods, length of each one, half-time, extra time... You define how your competition is played and the stopwatch, stoppage time and statistics adapt. Teams, stadiums and seasons are yours to manage too.

Yes. Each match can carry its fee and expenses, and the app summarises your earnings per match, per competition and per season. Your financial data is stored only on your device: it is never uploaded to any server.

Yes, if you turn it on. With Calendar access, REF! creates an event for every match you are appointed to and keeps it up to date — and removes it if the match is cancelled. You can switch it off at any time in settings.

Yes. Health metrics (heart rate, calories, distance) and your GPS route are used only to show you your own performance, and they leave your device only if you choose to share a match with your officiating team. There are no ads, no tracking, and your earnings are never uploaded to any server. You can delete your account and all remote data from within the app. Full detail in the privacy policy.

Email us at soporte@therefapp.es. We read everything, especially suggestions from active referees.