Signing up to Referee Soccer Games

Referees self assign to officiate soccer games on the NYSA Referee website. To self assign, log onto the NYSA Referee website and click on Referee, Match Inquiry.  While the majority of NYSA soccer games (recreational, select, and premier) occur between September and mid-November, there are also quite a few select and premier soccer games in January through March/April that you can self assign to.  The purpose of SelfAssign is to enable a referee to assign themselves to a specific game's open CR or AR positions, provided that the open CR or AR position they are seeking falls within certain prescribed requirement.  SelfAssign eliminates the time spent attempting to coordinate contact between the referee and referee assignors and allows referees the ability to sign up for games that fit into their schedule.

HOW DO REFEREES SELF ASSIGN TO REFEREE GAMES?
In Referee, Match Inquiry, a small Green Plus self assign will appear next to a game's open CR or AR position.  Match Inquiry page applies some basic checks against unfilled positions and places a Green Plus symbol self assign next to position(s) that may be available to the referee.  To self assign to a particular game's CR or AR position, then click on the Green Plus symbol self assign by the game's CR or AR position  (note not all game's have AR positions).  The referee will be assigned to the game's position in real time and the referee's name will appear on that game's CR or AR position on the NYSA website's match inquiry page.

If a referee did not succeed in passing all the rules' checks (see below for some of the commons errors you may run into), then please remedy the rule(s) that were not met.  To ask for special consideration for a particular game's position, then please contact the appropriate referee assignor.  NYSA Referee Assignors can help you self assign to games. They also will contact referees to referee games that do not have referees assigned yet. 

SELF ASSIGN RULES:
Each of the following rules are applied to determine if the requested position can be filled by the referee.

RANKING: Does the referee have sufficient experience to referee the game?
Each game has a certain complexity associated with it (i.e. a ranking from 1 to 15 with 15 being the most complex). Every referee has a ranking for the center (CR) position and for the assistant (AR) position. The referee rankings are also from 1 to 15 for CR and 1 to 15 for AR with 15 being the highest experience level. The SelfAssign process compares the game's position ranking with the referee's position ranking. The referee's ranking must be equal to or greater than the game's ranking in order for the referee to be able to self assign to the game's position. For example, if the game's CR ranking is 6, then the referee's CR ranking must be 6 or higher in order to self assign to that game's CR position.

TOO CLOSE: Already refereeing another game?
A referee cannot self assign to a game if the referee is already refereeing a different game that is within X minutes of the requested game (where X = 60 to 90 minutes depending on the age level of the games).

MATCH REPORTS: Has the referee filed all the Match Reports that are due?
Please remember to file all Match Reports that are due using Referee, Match Report.  Referees can view a list of their due Match Reports by clicking on Referee.

DAILYCR: Is the referee is requesting too many Center Referee positions on the requested date?
NYSA limits the number of center referee positions that a referee can take on any single day.  This is because referees simply cannot perform physically or mentally for a large number of games in a single day and that is not good for the referee and/or the game's participants. That said, if the requested game is within 6 days and the CR or AR position is still open, then this rule is overridden (the idea here is that a busy referee is better than no referee).

WEEKLYCR: The referee is self assigning to too many center positions during the week?
NYSA limits the number of center referee positions that referees can self assign to during a single week. This is to try to insure that referees do a proper job of pacing themselves over the course of the season. Also ensures that referees have opportunities to referee in the winter/spring season when there are not as many games as in the fall season.

TEAMMAXIMUM: Referee is trying to self assign to a game that includes a team that the referee has refereed too many times
In an effort to try to spread all referees around to different teams, the self assign process will not permit a referee to self assign to a game's position involving a team that the referee refereed within X number of days. For example, X is generally 21 days in the winter/spring season and 7 days during the fall season. This rule is overridden if the game date is within 6 days or less. The reason being that a referee that has recently done the same team is better than no Referee.

DATE: Is the Match on or after the current date?
Obviously, a referee can only SelfAssign to a game that is scheduled for a future date.

ASSIGNED: Is the requested Position available?
A referee can only assign to a position that is available. If another referee already has filled the position or the game has been held out of the SelfAssign process, by the referee assignor, then the position will not be available.