Судьи в различных видах спорта.

Official in a variety of sports
the official in a variety of sports

A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titles depending on the sport, including umpire, judge, arbiter (chess), commissaire, or technical official (by the International Olympic Committee). Referees may be assisted by umpires, linesmen, timekeepers, touch judges, or video review officials.

Originally team captains would consult each other in order to resolve any dispute on the pitch. Eventually this role was delegated to an umpire. Each team would bring their own partisan umpire allowing the team captains to concentrate on the game. Later, the referee, a third "neutral" official was added; this referee would be "referred to" if the umpires could not resolve a dispute. The referee did not take his place on the pitch until 1891, when the umpires became linesmen (now assistant referees). Today, in many amateur football matches, each side will still supply their own partisan assistant referees (still commonly called club linesmen) to assist the neutral referee appointed by the governing football association if one or both assistant referees are not provided. In this case, the role of the linesmen is limited to indicating out of play and cannot decide off side. An association football (soccer) match is presided over by a referee, whom the Laws of the Game give "full authority to enforce the Laws of the Game in connection with the match to which he has been appointed" (Law 5). The referee is oftentimes assisted by two assistant referees, and sometimes by a fourth official.

An American football (or Canadian football) referee is responsible for the general supervision of the game and has the final authority on all rulings. The referee is assisted by up to six other officials on the field. These officials are commonly referred to as "referees" but each has a title based on position and responsibilities during the game: referee, head linesman ("down judge" in the NFL), line judge, umpire, back judge, side judge, and field judge. In the modern XFL, an additional "ball judge", who wears a red hat, is on the field, but does not have the power to call penalties.

In 1892, the International Rugby Board was created as a result of a disputed try that the captains could not agree on whether it had been scored. The rugby laws were changed to require one referee and two touch judges at each game to make the arbitration easier and more consistent.

In international basketball and in college basketball, the referee is the lead official in a game, and is assisted by either one or two umpires. In the National Basketball Association, the lead official is referred to by the term crew chief and the two other officials are the referee and umpire. All of the officials in a basketball game are generally accepted to have the same authority as the lead official and therefore they are collectively known as the officials or referees.

In boxing a referee is the person who enforces the rules during the fight. He gives instructions to the fighters, starts and stops the count when a competitor is down, and makes the determination to stop a fight when a competitor cannot continue without endangering his health.

In cue sports, such as billiards and snooker, matches are presided over by a referee. The referee will determine all matters of fact relating to the rules, maintain fair playing conditions, call fouls, and take other action as required by these rules.

Ice hockey games are presided over by on ice referees, who are generally assisted by on ice linesmen. The combination of referees and linesmen varies from league to league. Some leagues use the title "assistant referee", giving those officials greater powers to call certain penalties. In addition, off ice officials administer to specific functions such as goal judge, penalty timekeeper, game timekeeper, statistician, official scorer and, at the highest professional levels, instant replay official.

In professional wrestling, the referee's on stage purpose is similar to that of referees in combat sports such as boxing or mixed martial arts. However, in reality referees are participants in executing a match in accordance with its pre determined outcome as well as any other events that are scripted to take place during the match. They also function as a conduit for communication between the wrestlers and backstage officials during matches.

The first regularized fencing competition was held at the inaugural Grand Military Tournament and Assault at Arms in 1880, held at the Royal Agricultural Hall, in Islington in June. The Tournament featured a series of competitions between army officers and soldiers. Each bout was fought for five hits and the foils were pointed with black to aid the judges. A fencing match is presided over by a referee. The referee must award a point to the fencer with right of way during the final action in the event of a double touch in foil and saber. A typical bout has one head referee and a video referee and at the request of a fencer can also have two visual referees.

A sumo match is overseen by a referee (行司) in the ring and five judges (勝負審判) seated around the ring. All dress in traditional Japanese clothing, with higher ranked referees wearing elaborate silk outfits. The referee oversees the pre match rituals and the bout itself, including ruling on the winner of the bout and the winning technique used. If one of the umpires disagrees, then all the umpires confer to determine the winner of the bout. Tradition holds that if one of the two top ranked gyōji has his decision overturned, he is expected to tender his resignation, although the Chairman of the Japan Sumo Association usually rejects the resignation.

An umpire is an official in several sports such as baseball and cricket. A few sports such as American and Canadian football (see above) have both a referee and an umpire.

A commissaire is an official in competitive cycling.

Aside the race control who are responsible for the start, running and timekeeping of the race, each section of the circuit is presided by a team of marshals led by an observer, who also report incidents and technical mishap of the race.

A gamemaster acts as an organizer, officiant for regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer role playing game. They are more common in co operative games in which players work together than in competitive games in which players oppose each other.

The Biblical Book of Judges revolves around a succession of leaders (judges). The same word is also used in modern Hebrew for referees in any kind of contest and in particular in sport. To distinguish them from judicial judges and from each other, the kind of the contest is added after the word "shofet" in the Construct state (e. g. "shofet kaduregel" שופט כדורגל, literally "judge of soccer").