Attention allocation in elite football refereeing: conceptual, empirical, and applied considerations

Football referees at the elite level are required to meet high-performance standards, physically, behaviourally, and mentally. These may pose considerable cognitive load which necessitates expert ability of gaze behaviour, perception, and attention allocation. In this article we aim to model the array of professional and psychological factors that impact referees' performance, leading to optimal and non-optimal performance states. We initially discuss the cognitive demands of football refereeing. The structure of this article is as follows: (a) defining the demands of refereeing task; (b) providing the conceptual basis for understanding the attentional process within the football refereeing context; (c) reviewing empirical data concerning several potential factors influencing attention in football refereeing (i.e. gaze behaviour, inattentional blindness, external distractors, pressure, exertion, self-control, and VAR); (d) modelling attention allocation in football refereeing under normal and highly demanding match conditions; (e) providing practical recommendations for improving refereeing attentional performance, and (f) offering specific suggestions for future research in this area.