If you are like many parents, you know absolutely nothing about soccer. So how could you possibly be a referee? The answer is training - FREE training. AYSO will provide the training and equipment necessary to be a referee.

After your training, you have the opportunity to work with other more experienced ref's to gain additional on-the-job experience. You will start out with the younger age divisions, and move up as your skill and confidence warrants.

What games will I be assigned to Referee? I work some Saturdays!

Our referee scheduler contacts the ref’s every week, and asks about individual availability and game preference. Refs are NEVER forced to ref a specific game.

No one is ever asked to change their work schedule to referee a game! Our referee scheduler respects the fact that work (or other personal activities) may limit your availability.

I don't have the courage to be the center referee!

For more information about volunteering to be a referee, please contact our Regional Commissioner via email at  [email protected] .

Download the position description at:  volunteer_referee.pdf.

Why can’t we pay referees?

As a volunteer organization, we are protected from civil liability from the Volunteer Protection Act of 1997.  Paid employees are not covered by the VPA, and we live in a litigious society. We can't open our region to this risk. The following explains what happens if we pay referees and how our region has established an incentive program to comply with local, state, and federal laws and National AYSO policies.

Can we pay referees?

Most people would rather increase the registration fee a small amount to avoid volunteering. There are several problems with this idea such as:

• Paying people to become referees and doing games doesn’t work.
• Referees must belong to an association and the Region would have to hire the association to provide services. AYSO Regions cannot own and operate a company or association – it can only contract for those services with an outside company.
• The cost is a lot more than most people realize, and the increase makes it harder for many people to afford their child’s participation in AYSO.

Why paying people doesn’t work

The offer to pay people to referee is not enough of a temptation to motivate them to go through the training and step onto the field for the first time. However, most people would still rather pay someone else than to be the one to referee.

A poll was conducted a few years ago to find out where referees started out and why they started refereeing. All three (3) organizations indicate that 90% or more of the referees in their association started out as an AYSO volunteer referee and they started refereeing because there were not enough referees to do all of the games.

Of the 10% not from AYSO, most were youth looking for a source of income before they were 15 or 16 years old.

If AYSO stopped motivating and training new volunteers to step on to the field and do a few games, then the pool of referees would decrease at a faster rate than it already is. We have already crossed the tipping point where there aren't enough properly certified and authorized referees in AYSO and other US Youth Soccer recreational or competitive club programs to cover games. AYSO and US Youth Soccer need to find ways to fill the top of the funnel.

The truth

Telling people the truth is the only way to force them to look in the mirror to find the person who is going to step up and coach a team or referee. And the truth is simple:

The Article Two, Section 2.5 of the National Policy Statements (see below) state the reasons why AYSO only allows volunteers.

The National Policy Statements also state that every game - starting at U7/U8 - must have a certified, authorized official or referee where:

• "Authorized" means the individual has been registered as a volunteer in the current Membership Year and passed the background check.
  And,
• "Certified means they have completed the appropriate training to referee the match including completing AYSO Safe Haven and CDC Concussion training.
• If we don’t have a referee for a game, then our region’s Referee Contingency is to have the home more experienced coach ref the game. This only puts more responsibility on the coach who has already volunteered much of their time. If no one is willing to referee, then the game will be cancelled and not be rescheduled.
• The decline of available, certified referees as your child gets older is very quick. We estimate one in four referees who did games in U8 will still be active in U10. One in four of those referees will still be an active referee when your child is in the U12 division. One out of four of those referees might obtain enough training to be an active referee when your child is in the U14/15 division. If you need to add 3 referees by the time your child reaches the U14/15 division, then you need to start out with 192 referees (which becomes 48 at U10, 12 at U12 and 3 at U14). You and everyone else in the Under-8 divisions need a lot of people to step up and to continue stepping up as your child - and their friends - get older and continue playing AYSO soccer.

Consequently, the truth is you - the person reading this webpage - need to decide whether or not you want to be the one to referee, the one to coach or the one to help with the Region's operations? Everyone should decide to help the Region with one of these three important areas to ensure your child - and every child in AYSO Region 325 - can experience one of the best youth sports programs available.

Paying Volunteers

AYSO has maintained throughout its existence a total volunteer concept of operation (except for its national staff) including without limitation, all aspects of coaching, officiating and local administration. This means that the Regional Commissioner, Region Coach Admin, Region Referee Admin, Safety Director, Registrar, Treasurer, and Division Coordinators do not get paid.

They have volunteered to serve in these roles because they want to ensure the success of our program, give back to the program, and love working with our youth and making a difference in their lives. Countless Regions across the country provide a successful and enjoyable soccer experience through such total volunteer efforts. Nevertheless, AYSO recognizes that the pressures of day-to-day life compete for the valuable volunteer time and sometimes makes it difficult to provide a quality soccer program solely with volunteers.

However, various federal and state tax and labor laws apply when payment is provided for services which, if ignored, may incur significant liability for the AYSO organization and personal liability for the executive member and/or board members who approve or condone such payments. Such liability is not covered in the Volunteer Protection Act of 1997 for these volunteers. It is the purpose of this policy statement, therefore, to reinforce AYSO’s all volunteer concept but to provide a protocol for a Region to follow when it is felt that it must pay for certain services.