28 August 2024
These terms and conditions of use (“Terms”) govern your access to, downloading and use of the entire contents of the Officiate website and/or mobile application “App” (the website and the App are together the “Website”) (including the services provided on and through the Website, the “Services”) owned and operated by Officiate Ltd, a company registered with Companies House in England and Wales under number 15050370 whose registered office is at 91 Peterborough Road, London, England, SW6 3BU (“Officiate”, “us”, “we”, “our”).
Please read these Terms carefully before using the Website. They are a legal agreement between you and Officiate. Using any part of the Website indicates that you accept these Terms. If you do not accept these Terms, please do not use the Website, cease downloading the Website, or leave the Website. For the avoidance of doubt, “Website” in the context of these Terms refers to Officiate Website which facilitates the Services.
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 – Officiate offers and maintains the Website to enable organisations such as sports clubs or leagues, schools and universities and other educational organisations (“Clubs”) to arrange match officials, umpires, referees, scorers, timekeepers, assistant referees (“Officials”) to officiate sports fixtures. The downloading of the Website, the registration for the Website and use of the Website is available for both Clubs and Officials.
1.2 – Officiate licenses use of the Website to you on the basis of these Terms. Officiate remains the owner of the Website at all times.
1.3 – Officiate may revise these Terms at any time by updating this posting. You should check the Website from time to time to review the current Terms because the up to date Terms are the ones that will be binding on you.
1.4 – From time to time, there may be updates to the Website. These updates will usually happen without any action required by the users of the website. Depending on the Website update there may it may be required to update these terms at the same time, so it is important you review the current terms as described in paragraph 1.3.
1.5 –You accept responsibility in accordance with these Terms for the use of the Website on any device, whether or not that device is owned by you.
1.6 – By using the Website, you consent to us collecting and using technical information about the devices used to access the Website and any related software, hardware and/or peripherals to improve our products and to provide any Services to you.
2. THE WEBSITE AND THE SERVICES
2.1 – Officiate is a platform that connects Club users with Officials users, enabling them to interact with one another. We allow Officials to create profiles on the Website which can be viewed by Clubs. We allow Clubs to create fixtures on the Website which can be viewed by Officials once the fixtures status has been changed to “live” by the Clubs. Through the website, we enable Officials and Clubs to arrange appointments for officiating sports fixtures.
2.2 – We do not provide employment services. We do not employ Officials. We do not seek to find employment for Officials. We do not recommend Officials. We do not interview Officials or Clubs and we do not review or edit profiles or fixtures.
2.3 – We do not provide places of work or places for sporting fixtures. We take no responsibility for the safety or otherwise of places where sporting fixtures take place or for any equipment which may be used by any person.
3. Officiate and Officials
3.1 – Where possible, Officiate will check the validity of Officials’ qualifications with the relevant governing body. For example, Netball Officials in England may be verified with England Netball. Once the Officials details have been checked their profile may include a “verified” status next to their qualification details. Officials must give their explicit permission to enable Officiate to share the relevant details (Name, Date of Birth, England Netball Registration number, qualification level, and Post Code) and cross check them against the relevant governing bodies database. The Officials details will not be stored by any third parties, for more information please see the Officiate Privacy Policy.
3.2 – Clause 3.1 above explains the extent of the checks that we make in relation to Officials. We do not carry out further verification of Officials or their profiles; we have no obligation to do so; and make no representations that we do so. You should make your own assessment of the people you decide to interact with through the Website, whether you are an Official or a Club. You must rely on your own judgment and common sense. The verification check that we have carried out and make available through the Website are only part of this process. Officiate accepts no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any profile on the Website as we do not check them. We do not accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any of the checks made in clause 3.1 nor the validity of Official profile information outlined in these clauses to the extent that we have been deliberately misled by the individual in question, and/or to the extent that the source of 3rd party information used was inaccurate.
3.3 – Officiate reserves the right to restrict or change the requirements for Officials to be able to register on the site. The requirements that Officials will need to meet will be different depending on the sport and will be made clear at the point of registration. For example, Netball Officials registering in England will need to be qualified, or working towards qualification, as defined under EN Netball and Europe Netball rules.
3.4 – At its absolute discretion, Officiate may refuse to allow any person or person acting on behalf of a Club, to register or create an account with Officiate or cancel or suspend any existing account if it reasonably forms the view that the User’s conduct or presence on the Officiate Platform, including a breach of User Obligations, is detrimental to the operation of the Officiate Platform and/or the security, welfare or experience of other users. Officiate may monitor communication made on the Website between users for this purpose – see our rivacy and Cookie Policy.
3.5 – The Website connects Officials with Clubs. When a fixture is booked, a binding agreement is created between the Official and the Club. Officiate is not a party to that agreement. Officiate does not and cannot control either the Official or the Club, the services provided (or not provided) or the quality or timing of those services and disclaims all liability for such.
3.6 – As an Official, you shall provide us with such identification documents or other information as we may require in order to set up your account. You consent to Officiate carrying out checks on such documents and information, including by the use of third parties.
3.7 – You represent and warrant to Officiate that:
(a) you are at least 18 years of age;
(b) that you are legally entitled to work as an Official in the UK;
(c) the details that you provide to us are accurate and up to date; and
(d) you hold any of the required qualifications you may need to legally carry out the services that you are offering through Officiate, and that they are up to date at the time of you carrying out any services booked through the Website.
3.8 – Once you have been connected to a Club through the Website, you shall not make a booking with that Club other than through the Website’s booking functions.
3.9 – You are solely responsible for all taxes, national insurance and/or similar contributions payable in respect of the payments made to you.
3.10 – You shall abide by the relevant governing bodies ‘code of conduct’ where one exists, to the best of your ability at all times.
3.11 – Officiate reserves the right to temporarily or permanently suspend your access to its platform, if it deems that you are engaged in or conducting behaviour that is detrimental to its business, operations or other members of its community.
4. OFFICIATE AND CLUBS
4.1 – As a Club, you shall provide us with such identification documents or other information as we may require in order to set up your account. You consent to Officiate carrying out checks on such documents and information, including by the use of third parties.
4.2 – You represent and warrant to Officiate that:
(a) the details that you provide to us are accurate and up to date; and
(b) you have permission to set up the account and act as an agent of the Club.
4.3 – You acknowledge that your favourite Officials, if you have any, may be unavailable from time to time, including whether due to illness or holiday or through ceasing to use Officiate.
4.4 – You agree to treat Officials courteously and lawfully and to provide a safe and appropriate environment for them in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. You also agree to provide them with all reasonable information and co-operation required to enable them to provide the services you have requested.
4.5 – Once you have been connected to an Official through the Website, you shall not book that Official other than through the Website’s booking functions.
4.6 – Both parties have the right to cancel the engagement.
4.7 – It is your responsibility to ensure you comply with appropriate regulations in regard to employment and tax.
4.8 – Officiate reserves the right to temporarily or permanently suspend your access to its platform, if it deems that you are engaged in or conducting behaviour that is detrimental to its business, operations or other members of its community.
5. SUBSCRIPTION FEES
5.1 – Officials and Clubs will both agree to a subscription (“Subscription”) and pay a Subscription Fee (the “Subscription Fee”) to Officiate for access to the Services, platform and functionality. Officiate provides a number of different Subscription options with different Subscription Fees as well as the option of an Annual Subscription Term, a Monthly Subscription Term or a Pay As You Go option for Officials and Clubs. Officiate reserves the right to change the Subscription Fee with one month’s prior notice before the Subscription Term is due to renew.
5.2 – All Subscription Fees are inclusive of VAT or the prevailing sales tax in the country of operation unless specified at the point of the Club or Official subscribing.
5.3 Subscription Renewal Fees will automatically be charged immediately following the end of the Subscription Term (either one year or one month) unless the Official or Club cancels the Subscription prior to the Subscription Renewal Date.
5.4 Officiate does not refund subscription payments made. An annual subscription enables a Club or Umpire to use Officiate for 1 year and a monthly subscription enables a Club or Umpire to use Officiate for 1 month.
6. ONLINE REIMBURSEMENT OF OFFICIALS’ EXPENSES
6.1 – Officiate does not provide online payment services but offers Officials the option to provide bank details that clubs can use to make an online payment to them (“Reimbursement Functionality”). This enables Clubs to reimburse Officials at the amount agreed on the fixture booking through Officiate. An Official is not required to receive online reimbursements and they can select their Payment Preference (“Payment Preference”) when they register on Officiate. When Clubs view Officials’ Profiles prior to confirming them for a fixture they are able to view each relevant Official’s Payment Preference.
6.2 – Officiate may provide online payments options in the future and use a third-party payment provider to facilitate the payment between the Club and the Official where the Reimbursement Functionality has been selected. Officiate does not process funds or hold funds on behalf of any users of the Website. Officiate reserves the right to charge Clubs or Officials any third-party processing fees that may arise from this process, however these will be made clear to the Club or Official prior to using the Reimbursement Functionality.
6.3 - Payment will be facilitated as soon as practicable by Officiate and the third-party payment provider. If the Club payment method is determined to be expired, invalid or otherwise not able to be charged, the Club agrees to pay the Official by another payment method as soon as practicably possible.
7. CANCELLATION
7.1 – The Official or Club may elect to cancel the mutually agreed fixture at any point before the agreed start time, or in the event of other extenuating circumstances after the agreed start time where a fixture is abandoned. Officiate accepts no liability for cancelled bookings from either Officials or Clubs. Reimbursement from the Club to the Official after a cancellation can be mutually agreed between the Club and the Official but this is outside of the service that Officiate offers and we accept no responsibility or requirement for reimbursement in the event of a fixture booking cancellation.
8. INSURANCE
8.1 - Officials and Clubs represent and warrant to Officiate that they hold all necessary and prudent insurance coverage.
9. PROMOTIONS AND MARKETING OFFERS
9.1 – Officiate may offer promotional offers from time to time which may include discount codes or periods of lower Subscription Fees. These promotional offers may be subject to expiration dates and may only be applicable to selected users of the Website. Officiate reserves the right to end a promotion without notice if at the sole discretion of Officiate if it believes a user is not acting in good faith in relation to the terms of the promotion.
10. DISPUTES BETWEEN OFFICIALS AND CLUBS
10.1 – If any disputes or disagreements arise between Officials and Clubs including those relating to the services provided by Officials or payments made by or due from Clubs (a “Dispute”), the Clubs and Officials are responsible for resolving any such Disputes directly with each other. Officiate shall not be a party to any such Dispute and Officiate is not obliged to take any action toward resolving the Dispute.
11. LICENCE GRANT AND — USE OF WEBSITE CONTENT
11.1 – In return for you agreeing to comply with these Terms, Officiate grants you a licence to use the Website. We only grant this licence to you and you cannot transfer or sell it to anyone else. We grant identical and similar licences to all users of our Website. The licence we grant is subject to these Terms, and Officiate’s Privacy and Cookie Policy. We may suspend or terminate this licence at any time.
11.2 – Apart from User Content (as defined in clause 14.1 below), all images, text, icons and other content on the Website (“Content”), as well as the arrangement of the Content on the Website, is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. Except as provided in these Terms, or otherwise in writing by Officiate, you are not granted any licence to use the Content or its arrangement. Nothing in these Terms grants you a licence to use any Officiate trade marks or the trade marks of any third parties on the Website.
11.3 – Unless you have entered into a separate written agreement with us, you shall not copy, republish, frame, link to, download, transmit, modify, adapt, rent, lease, loan, sell, assign, distribute, license or sublicense the Website or any of the Content. No copyright and/or other intellectual property notices or watermarks on any Content shall be deleted or modified.
11.4 – You shall not disassemble, decompile, reverse-engineer or create derivative works based on the whole or any part of the Website except to the extent allowed by law.
11.5 – If you breach any of the these Terms, your permission to use the Website automatically terminates. In addition, Officiate shall have the right to block, restrict, disable, suspend or terminate your access to all or any part of the Website or its Content at any time in its discretion without liability to you.
12. YOUR ACCESS TO OUR SERVICES
12.1 – While Officiate endeavours to ensure that the Website is normally available 24 hours a day, Officiate shall not be liable if for any reason the Website is unavailable at any time or for any period.
12.2 – Access to the Website may be suspended temporarily and without notice in the case of system failure, maintenance or repair or for reasons beyond Officiate’s control.
12.3 – When you register with us and choose a password to protect your secure account, you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password. If you become aware of any unauthorised use of your account, you must notify us and you should change your password immediately. You are solely responsible for all activities that occur under your password and/or account. You shall not permit anyone else to use your account.
13. YOUR PRIVACY
13.1 – Officiate is committed to respecting your privacy and the privacy of all individuals using the Website. More information regarding how Officiate may use your personal data can be found in Officiate’s Privacy and Cookie Policy which is incorporated into these Terms by reference.
14. YOUR CONTENT AND CONFIDENTIALITY
14.1 – Other than personally identifiable information (which is covered under our privacy and cookie policy), any material such as Website reviews or ratings which you transmit or post to the Website (“User Content”) shall be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary. Officiate shall have no obligations with respect to such material. You are solely responsible for such material. Officiate shall be free to copy, disclose, distribute, incorporate and otherwise use such material and all data, images, sounds, text and other things embodied therein for any and all commercial or non-commercial purposes.
14.2 – You are prohibited from posting or transmitting to or from the Website any material:
(a) that is threatening, defamatory, obscene, indecent, seditious, offensive, pornographic, abusive, liable to incite racial hatred, discriminatory, menacing, scandalous, inflammatory, blasphemous, in breach of confidence, in breach of privacy or which may cause annoyance or inconvenience; or
(b) for which you have not obtained all necessary licences and/or approvals; or
(c) which constitutes or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise be contrary to the law of or infringe the rights of any third party, in any country in the world;
(d) which is technically harmful (including, without limitation, computer viruses, logic bombs, Trojan horses, worms, harmful components, corrupted data or other malicious software or harmful data);
(e) contains photographs or images of a child, unless you are that child’s Parent;
(f) contains or discloses another person’s personal information without his or her written consent; or
(g) collects or solicits another person’s personal information for commercial or unlawful purposes.
14.3 – Officiate shall be entitled to remove any material from the Website which is posted or transmitted to the Website in contravention of these Terms or for any other reason.
14.4 – You shall not:
(a) use the Website or its Content in any unlawful manner;
(b) misuse the Website (including, without limitation, by hacking or inserting malicious code);
(c) resell the Website or its Content;
(d) infringe our or any third party’s intellectual property rights in your use of the Website or its Content;
(e) use the Website to solicit, advertise to or contact Users for any purpose other than to arrange Officiating for Sports Matches through the Website or to post or message to users of the Website regarding the fixture booking.
(f) use the Website to transmit chain letters, junk or spam;
(g) use the Website to harass, abuse or harm another person;
(h) frame or use any framing techniques to enclose the Website or any part of it;
(i) take any action that in our sole discretion places an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our servers or other infrastructure; or
(j) use the Website in any way which may cause, or be likely to cause, access to or use of the Website to be interrupted, damaged or impaired in any way.
15. LINKS TO AND FROM OTHER WEBSITES & WEBSITES
15.1 – Links to third party Websites and websites on the Website are provided solely for your convenience. Officiate has not reviewed all of these third party Websites and websites and does not control and is not responsible for these Websites/websites or their content or availability. Officiate does not endorse or make any representations about them, or any material found there, or any results that may be obtained from using them. If you decide to access any of the third party Websites/websites linked to the Website, you do so entirely at your own risk.
16. DISCLAIMER
16.1 – While Officiate endeavours to ensure that the Content is correct, Officiate does not warrant the accuracy and completeness of the Content. Officiate may make changes to the Content at any time without notice. The Content may be out of date and Officiate makes no commitment to update such material.
16.2 – The material on the Website is provided “as is”, without any conditions, warranties or other terms of any kind. Accordingly, to the maximum extent permitted by law, Officiate provides you with the Website on the basis that Officiate excludes all representations, warranties, conditions and other terms (including, without limitation, the conditions implied by law of satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose and the use of reasonable care and skill) which, but for these Terms, might have effect in relation to the Website.
17. INDEMNITY
17.1 – You shall indemnify Officiate against any loss, damages, costs or expenses which are awarded against or incurred by Officiate as a result of any claim or threatened claim (including any claim or threatened claim by a third party) arising out of or related to:
(a) any breach by you of any of these Terms or applicable law;
(b) your misuse of the Website and/or the Services;
(c) any messages or other content you post on or transmit via the Website;
(d) your infringement of intellectual property rights;
(e) your failure to provide accurate, up to date information;
(f) your interactions with other users of the Website or their facilities or equipment; and
(g) any Dispute to which you are party.
18. LIABILITY
18.1 – Nothing in these Terms shall exclude or limit either your or Officiate’s liability to the extent that such liability cannot by excluded under applicable law.
18.2 – Save to the extent that these Terms state otherwise, nothing in these Terms shall exclude or limit your liability under clause 16 (Indemnity).
18.3 – Subject to clauses 18.1 and 18.2, neither you nor Officiate shall be liable in contract, tort (including, without limitation, negligence), pre-contract or other representations (other than fraudulent misrepresentation) or otherwise arising out of or in connection with these Terms for:
(a) any economic losses (including, without limitation, loss of revenues, profits, contracts, data, business, anticipated savings or cost of substitute services);
(b) any loss of goodwill or reputation; or
(c) any special, indirect or consequential losses;
in any case, whether or not such losses were within the contemplation of you and Officiate at the date of these Terms, suffered or incurred by you or Officiate arising out of or in connection with the provisions of, or any matter under, these Terms.
18.4 – Subject to clauses 18.1, 18.2 and 18.3, each party’s total liability to the other in relation to all events or series of connected events occurring under or in connection with the Website, the Services or these Terms (and whether the liability arises because of breach of contract, negligence or for any other reason) shall be limited to the greater of:
(a) the total amount of the sums you have paid or received (as applicable) through the Website in the 12 month period immediately preceding the date of the first event allegedly giving rise to the liability; or
(b) £5,000.
18.5 – Nothing in these Terms excludes any statutory rights which may apply to your use of the Website which cannot be excluded, restricted or modified by contract.
19. TERMINATION
19.1 – We may terminate these Terms immediately by written notice to you:
(a) if you commit a material or persistent breach of these Terms which you fail to remedy (if remediable) within 14 days after the service of written notice requiring you to do so; and/or
(b) if you breach any of clauses 3.7, 4.2, 14.2 or 14.4.
19.2 – You may discontinue your use of the Website at any time. These Terms will continue to apply to past use of the Website by you.
19.3 – On termination for any reason:
(a) all rights granted to you under these Terms shall cease;
(b) your profile will no longer be displayed on the Website;
(c) content posted by you on the Website may or may not (at our discretion) remain on the Website;
(d) you must immediately cease all activities authorised by these Terms; and
20. ANTI-DISCRIMINATION
At Officiate, we are dedicated to maintaining an inclusive community. We prohibit any form of discrimination based on age, gender, disability, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or any other protected characteristic under UK law. Discriminatory behaviour includes but is not limited to offensive language, prejudiced action, inappropriate requests or unfair dismissal based on any characteristic mentioned above.
Clubs and Officials using Officiate must communicate with other users and behave in a fair and equitable manner. If you encounter any discriminatory behaviour, messages, notes or profile content on Officiate or privately with a user you connected with on Officiate, we strongly encourage you to report your concerns to our team.
You can report a user by contacting us at . Users reporting an incident will be treated with sensitivity and respect and your privacy will be protected as much as possible. By using officiate, Officials and Clubs agree to abide by this policy.
Violations of any Officiate policy, including our Terms are taken seriously. Any user found to be behaving in a discriminatory manner towards another user or member of the Officiate team will have their access revoked from the platform permanently.
With any questions or concerns, please contact our team.
21. MISCELLANEOUS
21.1 – To contact us in writing send your communication to us by e-mail to Officiate at .
21.2 – We will not be liable or responsible for any failure to perform, or delay in performance of, any of our obligations under these Terms that is caused by any act or event beyond our reasonable control, including failure of public or private telecommunications networks (“Event Outside Our Control”). If an Event Outside Our Control takes place that affects the performance of our obligations under these Terms:
(a) our obligations under these Terms shall be suspended for the duration of the Event Outside Our Control; and
(b) we will use our reasonable endeavours to find a solution by which our obligations under these Terms may be performed despite the Event Outside Our Control.
21.3 – We may transfer our rights and obligations under these Terms to another organisation, but this will not affect your rights or our obligations under these Terms.
21.4 – You may only transfer your rights or obligations under these Terms to another person if we agree in writing.
21.5 – A person who is not a party to these Terms has no right to enforce any term of these Terms.
21.6 – If we fail to insist that you perform any of your obligations under these Terms, or if we do not enforce our rights against you, or if we delay in doing so, that will not mean that we have waived our rights against you and will not mean that you do not have to comply with those obligations. If we do waive a default by you, we will only do so in writing, and that will not mean that we will automatically waive any later default by you.
21.7 – Each of the conditions of these Terms operates separately. If any court or competent authority decides that any of them are unlawful or unenforceable, the remaining conditions will remain in full force and effect.
21.8 – These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law. Disputes arising in connection with these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.