It's same as with outdoor. State Futsal Referee. There are rumors that there might be National Futsal offered next year. I am a Grade 6 Futsal referee and in our state you need to pass one assessment on a competitive U16 or higher game and a fitness test. Here is a link to all the requirements in my state.
Yikes. So you don't need to even have seen an adult futsal match to get a grade 6 badge? I don't even know how to respond.
I think the vast majority of states require at least a cursory familiarity with the adult game and all the nuances that come with it before they let a referee go for their state badge.
There is at least 1 men's futsal league in my area, but they follow USFF and I heard some horror stories about that league. We do have a healthy youth league in the winter time summer break. Additionally Futsal is still growing, so it's not readily available everywhere. In my area, indoor soccer is still more popular and the largest local indoor facilitie(s) (several arenas owned by the same place) is 100% against Futsal.
The following will sound harsh, and I know I don't have all the info, but if there are no Adult Futsal leagues, then why do you need Grade 6 Futsal Referees?
I have nothing to do with futsal and know nothing about the referee registration, but from the outside looking in it does strike me that since USSF is in the business of nominating FIFA referees for the sport, there needs to be some sort of structure/path to that process. The more popular futsal gets, the less that an ad hoc sort of system is going to be acceptable to aspiring referees (and, if it ever reached the point, might not even past legal muster).
I have heard quite a bit of these rumors. I hope that Keith Tozer and his crew are able to start a league.
There is a Pro League in Indiana/Ohio/Michigan, and has been for a few years. It's not USSF (nor USFF) sanctioned, so it hasn't been using USSF-badged referees. All of the referees are, in fact, USSF certified futsal referees, but that's because the assignor knows those referees as capable/knowledgable. And to @MassachusettsRef , USSF has somehow managed to find 3 FIFA Futsal referees (Jason and Shane, and then Lance replacing Jason) without a program between Grade 8 and Grade 1. That said, I would hope that to be considered for a white badge, you would have to have a track record doing games over the U16 level
Again, I'm an outsider here. But I think "managed to find... without a program" becomes increasingly more problematic as the sport is more popular, there are more competitions, and there are more aspiring referees.
The USSF has put a Grade 6 State futsal course together, and I know that it's been used in at least a couple of states. I don't know (being in Canada, where the promotion system for futsal is actually even worse than that in the US) how the promotion process/etc works though, and how (if?) it's going to work moving forward as there will be a push for more FIFA level referees coming from CONCACAF, especially Canada and the US.
Well I have a shiny, never used in real life Futsal Grade 8 badge. Actually that's not quite right. I have a shiny, never user in real life Futsal Grade 8 certification. USSF never bothered to send me the badge for some reason. But that's another story and I don't want to hold that against them when my name is placed in nomination for the FIFA badge.
Right there with you. I even downloaded the FIFA futsal law book which apparently gets updated with the arrival of Haley’s comet.
As with the regular, outdoor referee program, grades below 4 (and for Futsal that means Grades 8 and 6) are entirely managed by the 55 state associations. The USSF Referee Development Program put together some powerpoint training material that they called a Grade 6 course. I would hope that the state associations wouldn't say "Take the online course and get assessed on a U16 game and get a badge". Then again, if they do, I would treat any Grade 6 Futsal refs from that state as "suspect until proven competent". But we already have that with regular Grade 6's, right?
Fair enough, but before we get to that point, we would necessarily need a National Futsal Referee Program (and ID events, et c.). We need a system of State programs to feed THAT, but since the National program doesn't exist (yet), it's kind of moot. I think @Law5, in his (former) role as SRA, has said, the State Referee Program exists to serve the Adult soccer program in the state. It's use as a development program for National is, from the State soccer association's perspective, secondary at best.
Since RefGil has brought me into this conversation..... The State Referee Committee exists to serve the referee needs of the youth and adult (amateur) associations in the state. If there are no adult games in a state (e.g. Wyoming), then the SRC doesn't need to register referees as State Referees. Of course, there will always be at least a few referees who want the badge just because it's there and having it makes them feel that they're a better referee than some other referees. It may be true that they are a better referee than others but it's pointless for the SRC to identify them as being capable of doing games that don't exist in the state. Our state has a few futsal facilities, as distinct from indoor (dasher board) facilities, of which we have more. None of the indoor facilities are USSF affiliated. I am told that one of the futsal facilities has USSF affiliated futsal one or two nights a week. When USSF's Development Academy announced that they would be having a DA futsal tournament here, some of our referees who do indoor/futsal got registered so they could do those games. (I think all of them are members of the same family, all of whom are USSF grade 6 or 7 referees.) I assume that they are the ones doing the futsal games on those nights. I am very good friends with a coach who is a FIFA Futsal Coach and he says that the pro futsal league is in formation. I think he told me that they were planning to start up in 2018. USSF and FIFA have had a fraught relationship with USFF over the years. At one point, USFF asserted trademark or copyright rights to the word futsal and they sued FIFA for violation of their rights. Their case was thrown out of court and USFF decided to affiliate with USSF, I believe in much the same relationship that AYSO has with USSF. So far as I know, USFF still tries to register "their" referees, separate from USSF's registration, but only USSF registered referees are going to be nominated for FIFA futsal badges. So my read of all of this is that USSF is trying to create a process to identify futsal officials who can do the pro league games when and if they start play.
Researching fustal in the US has left me with more questions than answers. There's plenty of indoor soccer (mostly with hockey like boards and field turf) in North Carolina, but trying to find organized futsal is not as clear. I find a few websites that look like they're 8 years old. Is futsal (not indoor soccer) growing in the US at the rate where it's worth becoming a USSF futsal ref? Is there a separate USFF certification?
It really depends on your area. Hear in Michigan the sport has grown tremendously. Check out US Youth Futsal to see if there are any leagues in your area. Changing subjects, Yesterday I talked to the owner of a youth Futsal league in Lansing, Michigan the league is a USYF League. Come to find out he owns a pro futsal team. He said that currently there are two professional Futsal leagues. One is sanctioned by USFF (National League of Professional Futsal) the other is not. (Major league Futsal) I had never heard of these leagues before.
Never heard of the first, but the second is AMF futsal (ie, non-FIFA, but the other stream, similar to what's played in India in their new pro futsal league).