In the Oxfordshire Walking Football League we took a pragmatic view on this and abide by Law 4, but have made one exception for plain wedding bands that simply cannot be removed.  In those cases, the ring must be bandaged up or covered with a padded plaster (normal plasters are not acceptable).

It has to be remembered that there are many older players who have worn their wedding rings for a significant number of years and because of things like arthritis, their fingers have swollen to the extent that the only way to remove the ring would be to physically cut it off.

To ban those players was considered to be extremely unreasonable and anti-inclusive.

I am one of those players!

I think that you need to look at what is the background behind the law regarding jewellery, surely this is to do with the safety of the players. So clearly a fist full of sovereign rings and four 24 carat belcher necklaces is a ridiculous way for a walking footballer to walk on the pitch and should be dealt with accordingly, but a single wedding ring that has been worn for many a year (38 years in my case) is not a real danger to anyone? (And please don’t tell the story of fingers being ripped off whilst putting up the goal nets) also players may need to monitor heart rates so is a slim ‘Fitbit’ type of device covered by a sweatband and issue? Many of the women players wear lots of earrings? WF is a none contact sport (and yes there will always be accidental and incidental contact) but the dangers of injury are greatly reduced because if the non contact element. We need to strike a balance over this and identify the real chances of injury being caused by the jewellery being worn by walking footballers.

Great to see that the new LOTGs have adopted the stance that OWFL took last year with wedding rings now permitted if properly covered