Referee Classes

The first Ref Class of 2008 will take place on March 1st. Contact David Lister for more information.

All referees are volunteers. Without volunteers AYSO can not function. NO REFS, NO GAMES!

Soccer is a very simple game to referee. The lower division of Under 8 require you to keep time and point in the direction the ball goes when kicked out of bounds. U-10 and above adds the offside rule and is simple when explained. There are only 17 Laws of the game and we will train you in a single day. The class to do Under 8 is 4 hours long and will be given the first half of the regional referee class. If you stay and do the full regional referee class you will be able to do all but the upper divisions of under 14 and above. Every team must have at least one parent volunteer as a referee to be eligible to play in any post season tournament. If you want the best seat in the house then put on the yellow shirt and get out in the middle where all the fun is.

We need you!

Ask the ref!

For any referee's who are at least U8 certified you may sign up as Center Referee for your child's game. For U10 and above you may sign up as an AR for your child's game. If no neutral Center is available you may then Center. We must make every effort to avoid these conflicts when possible.

What the heck is offsides? Click on this link to see an animation of offsides.

Referee's most FAQ's: Archives

Question: Can an offside player be called for an offside offence, if he is in an offside position and he asked his team mate to kick the ball to him? In the situation the ball never reached him and there were no Defenders or keeper near him.

Answer: No offside. If the player in an offside position calls for the ball but the ball is not played to him there is no offside possible. The ball must be played in the players direction and the opponents act in some way to defend him before interfering with an opponent is possible. If the ball was not within playing distance then the player also could not be considered to be interfering with play. A similar Question appears under the USSF web site. The question referred to a player in an offside position nearby a keeper. The keeper was seen waving at a defender to cover the player in an offside position. The referee incorrectly called offside. The official answer was the keeper had no reason to react to a player just because he was in an offside position. The Keeper's waving and reacting to offside players should have no bearing on the officials decision if the offside player was interfering with an opponent. Only if the offside player made some move to obstruct the keeper's view or in some way impede the keeper should he be called for offside.

Question: Can defenders kick the ball out of the touchline as part of their defense? I have seen a Referee warn a defender not to do that because in his view the Defender is delaying the game.

Answer: Yes, If the ball is in play then defenders may kick the ball out of bounds as far as they want and they can not be penalized. There is no Law that forbids kicking the ball out of touch at any time as long as the ball is in play. However, if the referee deems the action is to delay play, for instance to preserve a lead late in the game, he may warn the defending team he is adding time and that they will gain no advantage by continuing the practice. But that is all he can do. If a player kicks the ball out of touch that is not in play, such as after a referee has stopped play for a free kick or any other stoppage then the player can be penalized for delay. Also if the referee has signaled the ball out of touch and a defender decides to make really sure by sending the ball into the parking lot the referee may penalize for delay, but the ball must have already been clearly out of play.

Question: Can you score directly from a throw in.

Answer: No you can not. If the ball goes in the goal you treat this as if it crossed the goal line but not in the goal. The restart is Corner kick if thrown by the defenders and goal kick if thrown by the attackers.

AYSO 337 Code of Conduct and Vision

Referee Policy on Standards of Dress and Appearance

Additional Memos

This section contains the most frequently asked questions by new referees on the Laws of the Game. Questions will be updated on a regular basis. The link is:

http://www.ussoccer.com/referees/content.sps?iType=4169&icustompageid=13185

Please continue to use the AYSO Region 337 Ask the Referee Administrator 2004 and 2005 pages for answers or clarifications to your questions in addition to the USSoccer.com FAQ URL.