Becoming a Referee

There are two jobs, and you will do both at different times.

The center referee (CR) is the one referee everyone on the sideline is watching: in the middle of the field, blowing the whistle, calling fouls, showing cards, and running the game. On a small-sided youth game, the CR is often the only official on the field.

The assistant referee (AR) works the sideline with a flag. An AR signals when the ball goes out of bounds and who gets the restart, watches for offside, and flags anything the CR couldn’t see from the middle. The AR doesn’t blow a whistle or make the final call — that’s the CR’s decision to make or ignore.

Your first games will not be adult matches. Most new referees start one of two ways:

• As a solo center on a small-sided youth game — U9/U10, 7v7, no assistant referees at all. It’s just you, a smaller field, and two teams of kids.
• As an AR on a crew — a team of three officials working a bigger, older-age game (9v9 or 11v11), where you’re the assistant while someone more experienced runs the middle.

Working AR first, before you’re handed the whistle, is a common way to learn. It puts you on the field without asking you to make the game’s decisions, and it means you watch how an experienced CR handles player check-ins, coaches, and game management before you have to do it yourself.

What it takes to get on the field in the first place — the course, the background check, the age rules — is covered in How old you have to be and in Certification Requirements. What to expect on the day of your actual first game is in Your First Games.

You get paid to be moving on a field instead of sitting in the stands. That’s reason enough for a lot of people. A few other things tend to matter once you stick with it:

• It pays. Rates depend on the league and age group — see what it pays.
• It keeps you active. You’re on your feet and moving for the whole game, not standing still.
• It teaches you to decide under pressure. You make a call, live, with everyone watching, and then the game moves on. That’s a skill on its own, separate from soccer.
• You keep it for life. Once you’re certified, you can referee for as long as you want — recreational leagues, adult leagues, tournaments — long after you’ve stopped playing.

None of this requires you to already know the game inside out. That part comes with the certification course.

There’s no single number to give you here. Rates depend on the league, the age group, and whether you’re the center referee (CR) or an assistant referee (AR), and none of that is fixed across Oregon. Ask your assignor what a game pays before you take it — that’s a completely normal question for a new referee to ask, not a rude one.

Soccer5 leagues say this outright: for locations, times, and pay, you contact your local Soccer5 club directly. Other leagues work the same way even when they don’t say so — your assignor is the source for a current rate, not this page.

Filing the report matters beyond getting paid. On OYSA games, a report that isn’t filed within 24 hours carries a fee charged to you — not a large one, but it comes out of your pocket, not the league’s. Getting Assignments covers how and when to file one.

A season has a shape. Fall (roughly early September through late October/early November) and spring (roughly late February through late April/early May) carry the bulk of league play, for both recreational and competitive teams. Summer (roughly early June through mid/late August) is mostly tournaments rather than league games. Winter is thin — some limited outdoor play, some indoor or futsal — nowhere near the volume of the other three.

Your games won’t usually show up as a single lonely slot on your calendar. Leagues schedule several matches back to back, at the same field, on the same morning — a block. A block, not one isolated game, is what a typical outing looks like. Getting Assignments covers how you actually claim or get assigned to one.

How long is that in practice? Your first games will be U9/U10, played 7v7, and the match itself is two 25-minute halves — about 50 minutes of play plus a short halftime. Add the 30 minutes you should arrive before kickoff, and one game is roughly a two-hour block of your morning once you count getting to the field and back. Working a block of two or three games means arriving 30 minutes before the first kickoff, not each one, and staying through the last game.

You have to be at least 13 to register for a referee course. This is a US Soccer rule, not a local preference, and there are no exceptions — a course provider or assignor can’t register you younger no matter how ready you are.

Turning 18 changes two things about certifying:

• You now need a background check, which adds a fee of roughly $25 on top of the course cost.
• Your online coursework now includes a SafeSport training module. Referees under 18 skip this module — but not its protections. Instead, OSRO puts the safeguard on the adults around you: see below.

The full list of what certifying actually involves — course, coursework, field training, cost — is in Certification Requirements. How to sign up is in Registering for a Course.

If you’re not sure whether a message counts, loop the parent or guardian in anyway. Nobody will think less of you for it.