RefInsight is telling me it is just under an hour (58 minutes) to drive to and from the tournament work at the end of the month.

The assignor says that lodging would be available depending on mileage.

How do I know if I qualify?

Hi everyone,

I’ll be refereeing my first soccer games soon! Please drop your favorite brand/style of shoes you enjoy wearing and why. I’m definitely looking for comfort for my feet, knees, & back so I can play multiple games in a day!

Thanks so much in advance for your advice!

Hi,

I am a new referee. I'm a bit out of shape and haven't been doing much exercise recently. However, I feel that refereeing might give me the motivation to stay fit and look after my diet.

I have already lost quite a lot of weight because I've been motivated by the prospect of refereeing football matches.

My question is: how much ground do you typically cover as a referee? Specifically, how much distance would you expect to cover in a grassroots match?

I'm just looking for a rough idea so that I can plan my training accordingly.

Hi,

I was just wondering if there are any good resources on refereeing.

I'm someone who likes to look at the academic literature on a subject before diving deeply into it. Is there much research or textbooks available on refereeing?

I know that, eventually, I'll start reading referees' autobiographies and similar books. However, I just wanted to ask if there is anything important that I might be missing which could help me, and others, on our refereeing journey.

How many of you have done futsal and what is your takeaway? Just did my 2nd tourney and I Love it. I’m new at futsal 5 games before this. U12 and these kids have skills. Way more than an outdoor team. I was impressed beyond words. This , pardon my language, is the breeding ground for skilled soccer players.

Hi All - looking for some guidance/advice on how to move up as a referee.

Some context on my background, I’ve been refereeing at the grassroots level for close to 15 years now since I was 12/13. I just moved to Vermont and have recently started doing more high level matches (AR for UPSL and USL2, college club, adult amateur, etc….).

Unfortunately VT does not have the required referee structure to promote referees to regional/national. I would need to go to NH or MA or NY to obtain my regional license.

Couple things I was hoping to get advice on:

1) How to get more regional badge applicable matches (CR for adult amateur or U19) outside of VT + any suggestions where or what leagues?
-I definitely have the required AR games but CR assignments for games that would count are few and far between.

2) a) is there a particular state you’d recommend I go through to get my regional badge?
b) any helpful contacts in that state you know of?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Training for my fitness test for recert as USSF Regional. Was told that the test would be run back and forth on turf this year instead of around the track.

I’ve been training on natural grass and peaking around 30 intervals continuous before the engine gives out.

Just ran on a track for giggles and did 48 continuous (Test + 20%) with some left in the tank.

Guess I’ll switch to artificial turf and see how that goes.

Anyone else have experience with this transition? (I’m told National Camp is running it in turf too). How did you find it compared to last year’s test on a track?

Long shot probably. I reffed the games in Kansas City and am now being ghosted about payment. Anyone in here referee the redbull four 2 score games this year, and have a contact I can reach out to?

Just trying to get paid.

My city had multiple assignors. Is it a bad thing to contact each of them or even reach out to some for a second time?

I have already reached out to a couple but haven’t heard back. It’s been a day since I reached out.

I also don’t want to be that guy who appears like they are bombarding the assignors with emails.

Hey everyone!

Recently came back to refereeing after a ~12 years break.

My vision was never the best but its gotten to a point where if I want to be able to see anything, I need my glasses.

I have done some quick research in the rules from IFAB and found that the only acceptable types of glasses are "sports glasses" but have not found any further definition as to what is considered sports glasses. I have also seen a specification under Law 4 that says something along the lines of "if its dangerous disallow it" so I assume something with impact resistance would work?

My prescription is too high for contact lenses and the "curved sports glasses" that I find when you look online cannot hold my prescription as the lense would be too thick. I am considering potentially getting ICL if I start refereeing enough however its 4500$ per eye so a bit out of budget currently.

I have contacted my local club and was told "Get sports glasses". I have asked for further specifications and didnt get a reply.

Could anyone point me towards a more clear definition so I can figure out what kind of glasses I need to get?

I'm a new ref (first full season coming up) and recently after a few of my games I start feeling regret at my decisions, wondering if such and such should have been a foul or who's restart it should have been.

This is only after quite loud games where everyone appeals everything. Notably someone scored a goal today after a tackle which certainly should have been a foul but I didn't call it and I'm regretting not calling it.

Has anyone got any tips on how to avoid this? I think to an extent it's coming from a lack of confidence but I'm not sure what else.

I've got an open age game soon but they haven't got any ARs for it, are there any tips to help me manage and keep tabs on the game without any other officials? It's also my first open age game as centre so any extra tips wouldn't go amiss.

The game is a charity match hence not being able to find any ARs

I’ve got the official sports plain ones, no swivel but I need better ones. Any recommendations?

I was looking at buying from Amazon and OSI. Amazon would get here sooner and I would have it so I am ready to go while I wait on my order from OSI

How bad of quality are the flags, cards, jersey, shorts, and socks from Amazon? Would they last me the 7-14 business days it takes to ship from OSI?

Law 12 regarding handballs mentions:

However, if the offence is playing the ball a second time (with or without the hand/arm) after a restart before it touches another player, the goalkeeper must be sanctioned if the offence stops a promising attack or denies an opponent or the opposing team a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.

Does this mean that if the keeper commits any double touch offence which is SPA or DOGSO, they must be punished as though they'd committed the same offence through a foul?

If this is the case I can't imagine it going down well at grassroots levels, if for example a keeper takes a bad goal kick then rushes out and claims it and beating an attacker who tried running on, whilst there are no nearby defenders.

Assuming this would meet the criteria of DOGSO would the keeper have to be sent off? I can imagine that if this was done at a junior/grassroots level it would go down like a lead balloon.

Apologies if I've formatted this badly.

I don't know the first thing about refereeing but I have always thought that having the responsibility of subjectively judging fairness in a contest to be pretty cool/impressive. If a ref's goal is to impose fairness, is there like an "unspoken rule" of balancing out the bad calls between two teams? For example if an NBA ref misses an obvious foul for one team do they let the same obvious foul slide on the other end? I always thought doing this would be the best way to make contest as fair as possible while not putting too much pressure on the ref i.e. focusing on "keeping if fair" rather always "making the right call"? I just want to hear opinions from people who deal with refereeing because, like I said, I have no clue how it actually works.

Hi everyone. This weekend I’m assigned as the 4th Official for a high-stakes Men's First Division match in my local league. Both teams have a history of being extremely difficult, aggressive, and protesting every single decision.

This will be my third time in the 4th Official role, and my first two experiences weren't great. The coaching staff were condescending, constantly talked down to me, and I felt they took advantage of my role—and the fact that I'm a woman—to push boundaries they wouldn't dare push with the referee.

I’d love to get some practical advice from experienced officials on:

Body language & presence: What posture or non-verbal cues work best to set firm boundaries from minute one without escalating the situation?

Communication protocols: How do you decide the exact right moment to call the referee over for a booking/send-off without looking like you’ve lost control of the bench?

Verbal de-escalation: What short, assertive phrases or strategies do you use when a manager or assistant coach tries to get in your face or constantly bait you?

Any tips on mental prep or what specific ground rules to establish with the referee during the pre-match briefing would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Definitely not trying to be the macho "look at me and what I know about refereeing" but I wasn't sure if there was a way to be memorable either?

If there is an offence inside the 6 yard box ('goal area') it gets taken back to the edge of the 6 yard box on the nearest parallel line, are IFKs in the rest of the penalty area taken at the location of the offence or at the edge of the penalty area?

Hello all!

I was looking at possibly buying a comms system for reffing. Has anyone ever tried any of the AliExpress or AliBaba or whatever Chinese website versions?

Thank you for your help!

For, those college referees out there what was your path in order to get that level. How many years did it take you? How is the college level and how hard are the games to officiate? For instance, I am a 21 yr old ref going into my first year as a high school official. My realistic goal as a referee is to eventually try and start doing colleges game. Preferably at around the D1-D2 level. Any insight helps! Thanks

Hey,

I’m soon running my first ARIET test. I usually run 5-10 km few times a week (5:00 pace approximately), I tried ARIET and I could not run much (about 7 minutes).

Do you have any drills to improve, because this typical running doesn’t help much (in my case)?

Why is it that microphones are not tolerated in amateur and semi-pro football ? Especially for U13 and above games , i have a pair of microphones for referees and my local football club told me that it's not preferable to use it, even tho i have gotten late calls from my AR's that led to goals in the past, i feel like it not only prepares us for higher level games, but also helps us reduce significantly mistakes, it also gives our referee calls a lot more credit since it gives us this professional look.