How to Continue to be a Referee

In order to remain certified as a USSF Referee, there are certain requirements which vary based on which Grade of referee you are.
What Grade referee are you?

It doesn’t matter what grade you are in school, if you are a student.   USSF (United State Soccer Federation) referees achieve grades from Grassroots (Recreational Referee) to 1 (FIFA Referee).  Grassroots referees do the lowest level youth matches  while Grade 1 referees are centers on international, MLS, and, potentially, FIFA World Cup matches.

Over 96% of all referees in Southern California are USSF Grassroots referees.  If you attended a 2-day classroom training (prior to 2014), or a 4-hour field training session (2014 or later), you are a Grassroots referee.    If your certification is current (your badge has the current year on it), you can check your grade by looking yourself up on Cal South’s Registered Officials List here: http://www.calsouth.com/en/referees/officials-list/

Grassroots Referee

In order to recertify, you simply pay your $70 to Cal South, pass the quiz, watch the videos and your badge is mailed to you. Go to this link: https://calsouth.com/recertification-upgrade/

Every month, you may obtain one hour of training by attending the monthly meeting of any Cal South registered referee association or Recreational Referee Organization, such as JUSA.  JUSA meetings vary in day each month as posted on http://www.jusareferees.org/info/upcoming-meetings/ .  Other referee associations hold their meetings on specific days each month, such as the 3rd Wednesday of the month.  Some of the local associations include NOCRA (www.nocra.com), OCSRA (www.ocsra.org) and LBSRA (www.lbsra.com). You may attend their monthly meetings to get your one hour of credit.  Be sure to sign-in on their meeting roster to get credit for attending. You may only get one hour of credit per month since all the associations teach the same lesson, as provided by Cal South.

There are also online options for obtaining your monthly hours at http://www.refereeinstructiononline.com/

In order to recertify, as long as you have your 5 hours of in-service training, you pay $70 to Cal South and pass the quiz from U.S. Soccer and your badge will be mailed to you.

If you don’t know your username/password, contact Cal South tech support.  You will need that username/password every year, so it’s best to remember it.

Risk Management

If you are 18 or over, or as soon as you turn 18, you are required by Cal South to obtain one-time Risk Management/fingerprinting.  This connects your Department of Justice records to Cal South in case you are convicted of crimes in the future which would be problematic for those who deal with children.

JUSA cannot allow anyone 18 or over to referee games without completing Risk Management.

The best way to do your risk management is at the fall JUSA  coaches’ meeting which takes place in late July where JUSA covers the cost of the fingerprinting.  After that, you will have to go to an independent location that does fingerprinting or to a local police station.  The fees charged vary greatly.  Cal South provides information here: http://www.calsouth.com/en/risk-management/

If you have any questions about your re-certification or your status as a referee such as grade, number of hours you’ve completed, etc., contact the Referee Education Coordinator & Registrar at refereeregistration@calsouth.com.

The JUSA Director of Referees cannot answer your questions since certification is done by Cal South, not JUSA.