https://www.ussoccer.com/history/organizational-structure/about https://www.ussoccer.com/organization-members https://www.ussoccer.com/organization-members So under USSF, US Youth Soccer and USClub are two of several Affiliate Organizations. Others familiar to folks will be AYSO, the US Adult Soccer Association, and the 55 State Associations (CA, NY, OH, PA, and TX have two each). PA West and Eastern PA Soccer are the Keystone Kontributors. US Youth Soccer (and US Adult Soccer) are kind of the first-among-equals, among the national associations affiliated with USSF. In turn, the US Youth Soccer site has top-level links to the 55 State Associations. Those SAs are grouped into Regions 1-4, which form the basis of the US Youth Soccer National Championship Series, "The country's most prestigious national youth soccer tournament." That language only really came about because... US Club Soccer was formed in 2001, to allow clubs/teams/players greater flexibility with rosters and administrative matters (think tournaments) than possible under The Way We've Always Done It. Because they launched as a team/player-focused entitiy, rather than an entire ecosystem, they right away entered into conflict with USYS/USASA for things including referees...which because the State Associations were formerly really overseers of their respective referee programs (each of which has an SRA, State Referee Administrator) kind of put USYS and the SAs against USClub, from an administrative perspective. Ironically, it was USClub's charter of reducing red tape, put together with the (admittedly often baroque) administrative environment of the SAs and USYS, that created chaos whereever these two organizations (or ecosystems) came into contact. Locally, PA West banned competitive teams from Sunday activity, but since they oversaw USYS administratively, not US Club, the team that was registered US Club could yank kids from community games on Sunday, to play competitive game, with no repercussions possible from the SA. USClub also runs competitions, including NPL and national championships. They are less state-oriented and more regionally-oriented, typically.
Side note addition: AYSO is unique in that it has permission from USSF to completely separately train and certify its volunteer referees and has an entirely different set of badge levels. (There is also a USSF/AYSO program for referees certified in AYSO to cross over to USSF badges without re-doing training, and vice versa.) AYSO does not permit the dual system (except in 8U and below games, which are non-competitive games with no goalkeepers).
Thanks for that @socal lurker Another thing is that USClub puts (or did put, long since I waded through their stuff) spectators explicitly under the jurisdiction of the referee. Point is, know your sanctioning body.
That is interesting. I **believe** that all of the tournaments and everything around here always said USYSA, and I did not come across USClub, so maybe that is why I am not quite sure about that. We also do not have AYSO in the area either. Thank you so much for the explanations!
Yeah when I moved here from LA in 2005 I was surprised about the absence of AYSO. That's where I played as a kid and where I first became a ref. Ironically that badge in 2004 was an AYSO Regional Referee, steps up from which were State and National (I believe).
Almost. The AYSO badges used to be Regional-Area-Section-National (at one point there was National 1 and National 2). They were renamed along the way to Regional-Intermediate-Advanced-National. (There is also an 8U badge for the 8U and below.) While a Regional badge is technically enough to referee any AYSO game, the expectations are different, but vary by referee availability in different places. Here, an Intermediate badge is generally expected for 14U games, and an Advanced for 16U/19U. (I haven't checked lately, but I believe the Intermediate badge is required to cross-register as a 7 with USSF. It used to be possible to cross register as an 8 with higher level badges, but I believe that ended with the last revamp of what 7 and 8 meant, as AYSO is inherently youth.)
I have been a delegate to the USSF AGM a couple of times. It is a very involved system at that level, with "the youth" (often pronounced "utes"), the adults (amateurs), the professional leagues sharing, equally, roughly 30% of the votes each. The rest goes to 'the athletes,' who are defined as those who have represented the United States within the last 10 years at the Olympics (including qualifying) and/or the Pan Am Games. the youth council is composed of AYSO, USYSA and US Club, as well as, I believe, one or two very small regional organizations. Voting at the youth council level is proportionate to player registrations, so USYSA is in control. The youth council gets votes at the AGM, the individual states all get votes, based on their registration, and US Club, AYSO et al. also get votes, again in proportion to their numbers. At the state level, as Pittsburgh Ref notes, as far as referees are concerned, the SRA, SDA, SDI, et al. are jointly chosen by the youth and adult association Presidents. Of course, in the "unitary' states, like Cal South, where the youth and adult are all under one organization, the organization President chooses the SRA, et al. Since US Club is not a state level organization, they have no say in the SRA/State Referee Committee activities. When US Club got started, that led to some SRA's trying to freeze out US Club. However, the SRA is still responsible for running the referee program at the state level, for the good of the game affiliated with USSF. Sometimes the ride gets bumpy. Example: A referee has been arrested for bank robbery. (Yes, it happened.) The USSF process is that the 'national state association through which he is registered' is charged with undertaking the process of stripping him of his badge. The wording has not been changed since the process has largely become on-line and, in most states, the youth or adult association really has no role in referee registration. For historical reasons, that is typically the adult association. So they have to undertake the process, even though the referee may not have been doing any adult games. You can guess, hen, how much interest there is in the adult association to do all of the work involved. The result is that some misconduct pretty much gets ignored. A complaint against someone with a very big name took several years, in the face of a cover up by the state association, and involved attorneys. A few years ago, USSF staff proposed that SRA's be appointed by them instead of the state associations. That went precisely nowhere in a year when the President of USSF was up for re-election.
I feel great! First half was a breeze, the boys came to play, which is good. Second became challenging, got chippy, I felt I controlled it pretty well, almost had a mass con before a corner which I managed to cool down. I got out of there without cards, although probably should have ended up with 1 or maybe 2 - but all in all good, managed without them and it was fine, maybe got a bit lucky there. Foul count was almost even, which is a good thing in a game that was pretty even. I was super nervous before and when I got to the field,, but once I stepped on the field and blew the whistle, all the confidence came in and it was good. I feel great and I am looking forward to more. I know there will be bad games, I know there will be mistakes, I've been officiating at the youth level for 10 years already, but I could not have got a better start to my college career.
When I used to do the AYSO Referee training, I would tell the class after they passed the test, "Congratulations! You are now Regional Referees. That's impressive in soccer." But they wouldn't get my joke
HS JV girls, two middle size schools, visitors from out in the boondocks. I'm doing a dual with a high school student. About 15 minutes in, the visitors score, against the run of play, at my partner's end. The ball comes back and is put down on the spot. The visiting team kicks off!!! I'm thinking, "Did I really see that? Maybe I made a mistake." Within a couple of passes, the home team has the ball anyway. At half time, my partner confirms that, yeah, maybe the visiting team did kick off after scoring. After the third goal, the second by the visiting team, the visiting team brings the ball back towards the spot. Except that one girl, who looks confused, sets the ball on the center circle line, closest to the goal they are defending! One of her teammates, very gently, told her to move it up 10 yards. Later, the home team clears the ball from their penalty area, rolling on the ground. About 15 yards away, visiting team player, with no one around her, whiffs on the ball, which continues to roll towards the halfway. A home team player standing there also whiffs on the ball. Yeah, it was that kind of game. 3-2 for the visitors.
I did my first high school game yesterday, which was my first dual in (gasp) 40 years. BV for two smaller schools, one of which had a handful of girls on the team. The game stayed for all of about 25 seconds, and was an 8-0 blowout when the losing team scored with under five minutes left--ball going back and GK screaming at the defender to head the ball back, but the defender ultimately taps the ball with his foot just before the GK could get it, causing the GK and an attacker to get to the ball at the same time, with a bit of ping pong and the ball in the net . . . and the GK explaining to the defender that he couldn't pick it up because of the kick. I gather the team doesn't score much, as they celebrated like the goal broke a tie. I was quite surprised by the lack of whining by both teams and virtual silence from the coaches. (I definitely felt like I was in the wrong spot a lot doing a dual--both when I was in the wrong spot and when I was where I was supposed to be.)
Every time I do a dual, I feel like I am in the wrong spot and I've been doing high school for 23 years!
This is supposed to ship in the next couple days: Instead of Heads or Tails I'm going to ask captains to call Managers or Soldiers!
Please tell me somebody has watched Squid Game...but if it's Nerd, table for one, I'm okay with that too
B14, first game of the day. Midfield on one half of field is a marsh. After seeing if there were fields we could move to, with coaches not wanting to cancel, we moved the field to use the drier part of available grass,. So we had a field with no markings that was way too short. Agreement from coaches that there would be no complaining about lines and no punting, and off we go. Boys had fun, we got no complaining. Not ideal in many ways, but sometimes that’s just OK.
Worst story of the week: Brazilian soccer player arrested for attempted murder after kicking referee in the head https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/ne...DU1IZqhV7Q2Jjwhb6vnQksle7bXkg4wOD4PIpODcFHjSg
What was he thinking‽ He was going to get a yellow, either for simulation or for dissent, and he just upgraded to a red card, a suspension, and a jail term. His team also cut him after the incident. #youcan'tfixstupid
Saturday game, high school boys' varsity. 1A schools, which means total 9-12 enrollment of under 90 students. Grass field with maybe 10 feet of elevation change from one end to the other. Manual scoreboard, which means no clock and the athletic director hangs up a card with a bigger number every time someone scores. Big teams. Visitors have 19 and the home has 17. It's still teenage boys (and one girl), so they have to tell you when they disagree but the heaviest dissent I heard in the first half was "Oh, gosh....." Parents and probably some grandparents in a single line of chairs, arm rest to arm rest, three quarters the length of the field. A little sun, a little light clouds to keep the sun out of everybody's eyes, temps in the upper 50's. One card, for SPA. Three penalty kicks, all for the visitors, all converted. Nobody complained about any of them, except the goalkeeper yelling at his defenders. Just Mayberry with soccer.
For the first time this weekend, I ran ARs for my son's middles. One U11 boys game, one U12 boys game. He did very well for his first two games above U10. One of our other high school referees watched him during his second game, which was a fairly intense (for U12, at least) 3-2 game. He seems to have a pretty good feel for what's a foul and what isn't, and he worked to make sure he was not directly behind players. His mentor talked with him about trying to get wider on the field while still being able to see ARs and making sure he checks his ARs at stoppages. The talking points the mentor had were definitely more "advanced" than I was expecting him to have, and he walked away telling my son he did very well for as little experience as he has (those matches were his sixth and seventh whistles). He also ran a line for me on another U12 game, and the only thing I could really provide for constructive criticism was that he needed to raise the flag straight up for a ball just out of play/pulled back into play. I knew that's what he was trying to communicate to me with some good eye contact, so we did get the call right in the end. The next time he works, he's going to work a game without me being a part of it. He's ready to "leave the nest" a little bit!
The hardest part for him (and for me) is just that he's still pretty small. Just turned 13 in July, and he's yet to hit his big growth spurt. So he's not a lot bigger than some of the U12 players. As we told him following the game, Armando Villareal is a FIFA who definitely is not a big guy, but he does have to project a lot of confidence to overcome his smaller size. But for no more experience than he has, he knows what he's doing!