Referee Week at the Creek
Tuesday 10/29/2019

This is Sean Donohoe, Assistant RRA, and this is a new feature regarding updates and other observations that we would like to share with our referees

A few items have been brought to my attention and/or that I've noticed the past few weeks:

• Please sign in at the Ref Tent at least 30 minutes before your match assignment. 
• Please be at your field at least 15 minutes before your match begins. There is a lot of pre-game activities that must be performed, and a full referee team is optimal.
• If you are a referee with a high Level Number (5 or higher) in our Scheduling System, please schedule yoursef for as high a level of referee slot as possible. We have heard issues of the Level 4 ref slots being taken by higher level refs, leaving the new Level 4 refs, who want to be out there on the field, with nothing but stand-by.
• Referees are to note which player is the Goalkeeper for each quarter on the game card.
• It is not the referees' duty to enforce the "maximum number of quarters rule" for goalkeeping that is found in the Coaches Manual on Page 19.
  
• This is not mentioned in TLOTG, so coaches who have a problem with other coaches, in general and specifically for this, need to take these issues up with their Division Administrator, and not resolve it in some uncivil way.
  
• Referees are to stay out of discussions involving a team playing shorter than the maximum number of players allowed on the field.
  
• Referees need to remind coaches that there are Technical Areas painted onto the field that they are to stay in.
  
• Referees need to remind coaches that the Substitution Break during each half should take no more than 30 seconds. Please refer to it aloud during the match as "Substitution Break" and not "Water Break" or "Rest Time," or any other such thing. Players must stay on the field unless being substituted out of the match.
  
• We remind our referees that the clock runs during the Substitution Break, and that Soccer matches have no quarters of a specified amount of time; soccer matches have halves of a specified amount of time. Let's give the players the time they deserve.

Refresher/Reminder on The Laws of the Game (TLOTG):
Dropped balls:

• New for 2019-20: TLOTG state that Dropped Balls are, when play was stopped inside the Penalty Area, given to the goalkeeper of that Penalty Area, full-stop; all other players 4.5 yards away;
  
• New for 2019-20: TLOTG state that Dropped Balls are, when play was stopped outside the Penalty Area, given to one player on the team that last touched the ball; all other players 4.5 yards away;
  
• New for 2019-20: TLOTG state that Dropped Balls are, when play was stopped inside the Penalty Area, given to the goalkeeper of that Penalty Area, full-stop; all other players 4.5 yards away;
  
• Dropped balls are not like free kicks, in that the player receiving the dropped ball can dribble the ball, for as long as the player likes, but cannot score directly (either goal) before some other player touches it. Please refer to Page 88 of TLOTG 2019-20 about Dropped Ball procedure.
  
• The new Dropped Ball procedure is designed so that there is no worry about the "fair way" to handle the dropped ball, and that the referee does not have to tell a player "the right thing to do" with the dropped ball ("send it long to give it to the other team because they 'deserved it.'"). The team that last touched it (except for inside the penalty area) gets the dropped ball, and that is now the "right thing to do."

Offenses (Fouls):

Offenses involving contact and/or hand ball are ALWAYS Direct Free Kicks or Penalty Kicks. There is no such thing as a "light foul" or a "but didn't really mean it" foul in which you as the center will decide that it's an Indirect Free Kick. Please see Law 13 (starting on Page 116 of the booklet TLOTG 2019-20) for more details. Download it from FIFA!

We've had some Regional Level Referees interested in taking the Intermediate Referee course. If anyone else is interested, please come to the ref tent! We'll put you on our list of interested referees, and we'll try to organize an Intermediate Referee Course.

Thanks, everyone for volunteering! We do appreciate your time, and without you, AYSO Region 9 doesn't have Safe, Fair, and Fun soccer games!