How To Join Us

BECOMING A REFEREE

WELCOME!

The North Alabama Soccer Officials Association (NASOA) welcomes your interest in becoming a soccer referee. We hope this page provides the information you need to get started. If you need more info, send an email to nasoa@nasoa.org.

TO FOLLOW

The remainder of this page contains the following subjects:

Types of Referees

Training / Certification / Training Costs

Association Fees

Equipment Required / Costs

Referee Payments

Upcoming Training Classes / Clinics

Upcoming Season Start/End Dates

TYPES OF REFEREES

There are several types of soccer referees in the North Alabama area:

USSF Referees

High School Referees

College Referees

AYSO Referees

Independent Referees

NASOA exists to train and provide soccer referees for “club”, adult, high school, and college leagues in the north Alabama area. AYSO is not affiliated with NASOA but is listed above for a more comprehensive list. (Numerous NASOA referees volunteer their time to support their local AYSO regions and feel it is a good forum to practice their refereeing skills.) Also Independent Referees are not affiliated with NASOA but are listed above to complete the list. Independent Referees work matches unaffiliated with any of the governing bodies discussed below. Many referees are of multiple types, e.g. Jim Brown is both a USSF referee and a High School referee.

Each type of referee exists because of the existence of their respective governing body. The governing body structures are:

Each sanctioned match must be refereed by a corresponding certified referee. A club or adult match must be refereed by a USSF certified referee; an AYSO sanctioned match must be refereed by an AYSO certified referee; an Alabama middle/high school match must be refereed by a AHSAA certified referee; a college match must be refereed by a NISOA certified referee.

TRAINING / CERTIFICATION / TRAINING COSTS

USSF:

· Grade 9 Entry-level Certification Class (For ages 16 and under and persons with little or no soccer experience)

· 8 Hours of instruction – ends with a written test

· $50.00 for the training class

· Grade 8 Entry-level Certification Class (For ages 17 and above with playing, coaching, or other soccer experience)

· 15 Hours of instruction – ends with a written test

· $72.00 for the training class

· Alternately, AYSO Intermediate Referees may cross-over to USSF Grade 8 Referees for a $25.00 transfer fee and forego the higher training class cost. (See form http://www.soccer.org/media/adminmanagement/forms/CrossCertificationForm.pdf )

High School:

· Clinic in January each year

· 3 hours of instruction – ends with a written test

· No cost for clinic

· $40.00 to AHSAA

College:

College referees are different from the other types of referees listed above in that one cannot become a college referee without being another type of referee first. To become a college referee, an existing referee must advance to a Class II high school referee or a Grade 7 USSF referee, have a minimum of three seasons of high school experience, plus have three letters of recommendation submitted from college referees with 5 or more years of experience, a college assessor or a college coach. There are other requirements as well. Due to the advanced nature of this referee type, minimal information will be provided here about college referees. For more information, contact a college referee or the College Referee Assignor. Also more may be read on the NISOA website. The assignor and the website are given at the bottom of this page.

AYSO:

· Entry level and advanced classes available

· Various lengths of classroom instruction

· No cost for classes

· See your local region’s website for details

Independent Referees:

No standard

ASSOCIATION FEES

$32.00 yearly to USSF

$40.00 yearly to AHSAA

$90.00 yearly to NISOA

$0 for AYSO

$25.00 yearly to NASOA (Except youth referees 18 years old and younger pay only $10.00)

EQUIPMENT REQUIRED / COSTS

USSF:

$25 Short Sleeved Gold Referee Shirt

$26 Long Sleeved Gold Referee Shirt (optional)

$25 Short Sleeved Black Referee Shirt

$26 Long Sleeved Black Referee Shirt (optional)

$25 Short Sleeved Red Referee Shirt (recommended)

$26 Long Sleeved Red Referee Shirt (optional)

$25 Short Sleeved Blue Referee Shirt (recommended)

$26 Long Sleeved Blue Referee Shirt (optional)

$25 Short Sleeved Green Referee Shirt (recommended)

$26 Long Sleeved Green Referee Shirt (optional)

$17 Referee Shorts

$5 Referee Socks

$50 Black Shoes (soccer shoes are the norm – preferably all black)

$10 Referee wallet, whistle, & coin

$10 flags

High School:

$25 Short Sleeved Zebra-Striped Referee Shirt

$30 Long Sleeved Zebra-Striped Referee Shirt (optional)

$17 Referee Shorts

$5 Referee Socks

$50 Black Shoes (soccer shoes are the norm – preferably all black)

$10 Referee wallet, whistle, & coin

$10 flags

College:

Four differently colored college referee shirts

Referee shorts

Four differently striped college referee socks

Black Shoes

Referee wallet, whistle, & coin

College flags

(Costs intentionally omitted for this advanced referee type.)

AYSO:

$0 Short Sleeved Gold Referee Shirt

$0 Referee Shorts

$0 Referee Socks

$50 Black Shoes (soccer shoes are the norm – preferably all black)

$0 Referee wallet, whistle, & coin

$0 flags

(AYSO typically supplies equipment to their volunteers at no cost to referees, except for shoes.)

Independent:

No standard

All above costs taken from http://www.officialsports.com/ and are accurate as of 10 November 2005. Uniforms are available from several other suppliers, including Pete’s Soccer Shop in Huntsville (see http://www.petessoccer.com/). See the links page on the NASOA website. Use of Official Sports on this web page does not constitute an endorsement by NASOA.

All equipment without governing body logos may be used across the leagues. For example, if you referee both club games and high school games, you may use the same shorts, socks, shoes, wallet, whistle, coin, and flags as long as the USSF logo is not on any of them. Thus shirts are the minimum multiple purchases for refereeing in multiple leagues, except separate socks for college games.