Referee Point System Policy & Protocol

Revised 21 May 2018

1. Objectives
   1. Develop and maintain a strong Region 11/Q/144 – South Irvine referee team by encouraging new referee volunteers.
   2. Have three certified, registered, and authorized referees in every 10U to 18U division game.
   3. Address the chronic, significant shortage of certified referees.
   4. Improve the quality, level, and associated capabilities of the Region 11/Q/144 – South Irvine referee team.
2. Summary
   1. This Policy rewards Fall Recreational League teams and Fall Extra League teams by using Referee Points earned by referee participation as a criteria for determining eligibility for a 10U, 12U, 14U Fall Core Program team to participate in a post-season tournament held after the completion of the regular Fall Recreational Season. Or, for 9U/10U/11U/12U/13U/14U Extra League team to go to the playoffs and Section / Area tournaments organized for the Extra Leagues.
   2. The scope of this Policy covers only the teams in the Fall Recreation League in the 10U, 12U, and 14U divisions and the Extra League 9U, 10U, 11U, 12U, 13U, and 14U divisions due to the consistent and significant shortage of referee volunteers in these age groups. This referee shortage reduces the quality of the game for the players and places undue burden on the volunteer coaches and other volunteer referees.
   3. Each Core or Extra program team will earn Referee Points for providing an Eligible Referee or Assistant Referee in an Eligible Game.
   4. Each Core program team must earn Referee Points equal to the nearest rounded value of 2/3 of the seasons games times 2 Referee Points per game times the number of games during the Fall Season to become eligible to play in the post-season playoffs. For example, an eight (8) game season is eleven (11) Referee Points (2/3*8*2 = 10.67 which is rounded to 11).
   5. Each team can earn a maximum of two (2) Referee Points per week from being the Referee or Assistant Referee.
   6. Each Core program team must earn and additional two (2) Referee Points for each scheduled home game during the playoffs to move on to the City of Irvine Mayor's Cup and, if applicable, the Area 11-Q playoffs.
   7. Each Extra program team will earn twelve (12) Referee Points to qualify to play in the post-season ("playoffs") tournament.
   8. The Regional Referee Administrator (“RRA”) will administer this Referee Point System and all decisions by the RRA are final and not subject to appeal. Questions should be sent to [email protected].
3. Eligible Games
   1. Fall Core program teams must earn Referee Points by providing an Eligible Referee or Assistant Referees for Core or Extra program games where an AYSO Region 144 team is the home team in only the following divisions: 9/10U, 11/12U, 13/14U, 16U or 18U. 
   2. Extra teams can earn Referee Points by providing an Eligible Referee or Assistant Referee for any Extra program game in any Region or any Core program game where an AYSO Region 144 team is the home team in any of the same divisions listed above for the Core program teams.
4. Eligible Referees
   1. No Referee Points are earned unless the appointed Referee is an Eligible Referee as defined in this Policy.
   2. Every Fall Recreational League team and Extra League team MUST have their team referees pre-registered with the Regional Referee Administrator or designee, to be eligible to earn Referee Points. Only AYSO certified, registered, trained, and authorized referees can be Eligible Referees. Eligible Referees are determined by the Regional Referee Administrator, according to their eAYSO volunteer status, completion of Safe Haven Training, Registration with Region 11/Q/144 – South Irvine, and completion of appropriate referee training courses. In addition, Extra League team referees need to have adequate referee badge certification for the division of the team they represent. The Regional Referee Administrator will then include the referees in a list authorizing them to earn Referee Points.
      
   3. Referees who officiate Eligible Games can earn and assign Referee Points to any team.  Once assigned, points cannot be transferred to another team.
   4. A referee must be wearing a full referee uniform and referee badge to become an Eligible Referee and earn Referee Points for officiating the game. Club Linesmen or referees not in uniform are not Eligible Referees and therefore do not earn Referee Points.
   5. A Youth Referee, who is also a player, is an Eligible Referee when he/she officiates Eligible Games in which his/her team is not playing.
   6. In special circumstances (i.e., no referees), a Coach (or Assistant Coach) who is also a referee, can be an Eligible Referee for a game where its own team is playing, if and only if:
      1. The team has an Assistant Coach that can act as Coach of the team during the game, and
      2. The Coach from the opposing team agrees to having the opposing Coach as a referee for the game, and
      3. The Coach has its referee uniform and badge, and dresses to officiate the game.
   7. To be considered an Eligible Referee, referees must have signed-up by Friday at 9:00pm in Region 11/Q/144-South Irvine referee game scheduling system to officiate a game as Center Referee or Assistant Referee. Some changes are accepted; see below in “Changes to Referee Points”.
5. Scheduling of Eligible Referees
   1. Referee scheduling will be through the Region 11/Q/144 – South Irvine system or Section 11/Area Q scheduling system for referee game scheduling, and administered by the Regional Referee Administrator.
   2. Because Region 11/Q/144 – South Irvine desires neutral Center Referees in all of its games; Relatives of a child should not sign-up to officiate as Center Referee of the games of the child. These Relatives should sign-up as Assistant Referee in the child’s games.
   3. The following are exceptions to the previous rule: (See “Changes to Referee Points” below, for procedure to modify Referee Points).
      1. Region 11/Q/144 – South Irvine does not insist on a neutral Center Referee for U8 games; Relatives can sign-up as Eligible Center Referees in the games of their child in the U8 Division. Nevertheless, Region 11/Q/144 – South Irvine prefers neutral referees in this young division, and Relatives are encouraged to switch positions if a neutral referee is available for officiating the game as Center Referee.
      2. When a Relative needs to serve as a Center Referee in the Relative’s child game because there is no other referee available.
      3. If both signed up Assistant Referees are related to players in the teams and the game has no CR, then one of them needs to act as Center Referee. The Eligible Referee associated with the home team should officiate as Center Referee; unless the other referee holds a more advance referee badge and the home team referee declines the Center Referee position. This Policy does not allow splitting the Center Referee position of a game between referees from opponent teams – only one Center Referee per game.
   4. When a Relative officiates as a Center Referee, the Center Referee must notify the coaches of both teams that a Relative of a team is officiating as a Center Referee.
6. Referee Points
   1. An Eligible Referee officiating a game as Referee will earn two (2) Referee Points.
   2. An Eligible Referee officiating a game as an Assistant Referee will earn one (1) Referee Point.
   3. As a reminder, each Fall Core or Extra team can earn a maximum of two (2) Referee Points per week and must earn the minimum number of Referee Points (defined above) during the Fall regular season (prior to the playoffs). And, Fall Core program teams must earn two (2) Referee Points for each home playoff game they are scheduled to play to move on to post-season play.
   4. For Extra League games, referees officiating as center referees must have the appropriate referee badge certification to be an Eligible Referee. Currently, as per Section and Area rules, Assistant Referees in Extra League games only require to hold Regional badge certifications, irrespective of the division.
   5. Referees can allocate the total Referee Points earned to a maximum of four (4) Fall Recreational League teams and/or Extra League teams, in the proportion that he/she selects. To assign points to a Fall Recreational League team or to an Extra League team, the referee must be a Relative of a child in such team.
   6. More than one referee can allocate Referee Points to a team – and the purpose of this Policy is to encourage this end result.
   7. Standings of Fall Recreational League teams for the post-season tournament or Extra League teams for the playoffs are independent of the total Referee Points earned by the team, and are based solely on the points earned by the performance of the team during the Fall Recreational Season or Extra League Season games (i.e., Game Points earned by the team).
   8. Fall Recreational League teams playing in the post season tournament must earn a minimum of four (4) additional Referee Points during post-season tournament games to be eligible to place in the final standings of the Fall Recreational Season.
7. Changes to the Referee Points Policy and Protocol
   1. The Referee Point System is administered by the Regional Referee Administrator and his/her decisions are final and not subject to appeal. Questions should be sent to [email protected].
   2. This Policy considers the following situations for modifying Referee Points earned by an Eligible Referee:
      1. An Eligible Referee who had signed-up as an Assistant Referee and officiated the game as a Center Referee.
      2. An Eligible Referee who had signed-up as a Center Referee and officiated the game as an Assistant Referee.
      3. An Eligible Referee who had signed-up to officiate a game and does not show to the game. The Center Referee for the game must report this situation to the Divisional Referee Commissioner so the appropriate changes are recorded. If no referee shows to a game, the game cannot be played, per AYSO National Rules and Regulations, which were adopted by Region 11/Q/144 – South Irvine.
      4. An Eligible Referee who had not signed-up to officiate a game and officiates the game as Center Referee or Assistant Referee. A special consideration, review, and exception are needed in this situation, because Eligible Referees need to sign-up by Friday at 9:00pm.
   3. To change Referee Points, Eligible Referees need to submit a Referee Point Modification Request to the Divisional Referee Commissioner. The following procedure is necessary to avoid misunderstandings, errors, and to simplify the administrative work needed to make the change by the Divisional Referee Commissioners and Regional Referee Administrator. Requests that do not follow this procedure will not take effect.
      1. Eligible Referee submits complete information of the game for which he/she had signed-up (or not signed up), and the referee position that he/she actually performed during the game. Required information includes: division of the game; date and time of the game; location (field name) of the game; name of teams/coaches of the game; referee position held (Center/Assistant); name of other referees (if any) and their position during the game.
      2. The Division Referee Commissioner will review the change, verify the validity of the change with other referees and coaches of the game, and pass the Referee Point Change request to the Regional Referee Administrator.
      3. The Regional Referee Administrator will record the change in the Referee Point System.
      4. When sending Referee Points Modification Requests by email message, Region 11/Q/144 – South Irvine, Division Referee Commissioners and Regional Referee Administrator appreciate that Eligible Referees indicate so in the subject line of the email by writing “Referee Point Change” and that the email include only issues related to the Referee Point Modification requests.
      5. Referees must submit their Referee Point Modification Request to the Divisional Referee Commissioner within two days of the game, or risk forfeiting the points.
   4. The Regional Referee Administrator may review and modify Referee Points at any time.
8. Disclaimers
   1. The Referee Point System may be revised at any time.
   2. The Regional Commissioner, after consulting with the Regional Referee Administrator, and with the approval of the Regional Board, may extend the Referee Point System to other programs in the Region (i.e., All-Stars, Select) modifying the Referee Point System specifically to cover the requirements of such Programs.
9. Additional ways to earn Referee Points. Additional Referee Points can be earned by becoming a newly certified Basic Referee or by upgrading your certification.
   1. A one (1) "bonus" Referee Point is earned when a registered volunteer is certified as an AYSO Basic Referee and completes their first game as Referee (not as Assistant Referee).
   2. Two (2) "bonus" Referee Points are earned when a registered volunteer certified as:
      1. A Basic Referee upgrades to an Intermediate Referee
      2. An Intermediate Referee upgrades to an Advanced Referee, or
      3. An Advanced Referee upgrades to a National Referee.
      During the current Fall season.