Types of assignments

Every crew has a center referee (CR), who runs the game on the field — whistle, cards, restarts, the final call on anything in dispute — and, on bigger games, one or two assistant referees (AR), who watch from the touchline with a flag: offside, whether the ball went out and who gets the restart, and anything happening away from the CR’s angle. The CR makes the call; the AR raises the flag and lets the CR decide.

Which one you get depends on the format:

• 7v7 (U9/U10): solo center. No AR — you run the whole game by yourself.
• 9v9 (U11/U12): either a solo center or a three-person crew, depending on the league.
• 11v11 (U13 and up): a three-person crew — one CR and two ARs.

Always check the league’s rule modifications before the game, since format can vary by competition even at the same age group.

Starting as an AR

If you’re new, ask your assignor for AR-only assignments to start. It’s a gentler introduction: you’re not making every call alone, and you get to watch how an experienced center referee manages a game — check-ins, talking to coaches, handling a frustrated player — before you’re the one doing it. Nobody thinks less of you for asking to start there.

A solo center game, like most U9/U10 7v7 matches, is the other common first assignment. There’s no crew to lean on, but the game is smaller, faster to reset if you miss something, and lower-stakes than a competitive 11v11.

Whichever you start with, the center referee carries extra responsibilities the AR doesn’t: filing the game report afterward, and calling in any red card or send-off promptly. If you work as CR and issue a card, expect that follow-up to be part of the job, not optional paperwork.

For how leagues differ in what they expect from you day to day, see Recreational, competitive, and tournaments.

Games fall into three broad categories: recreational, competitive, and tournament. They differ in who decides you get the game, how sure you can be of keeping it, and what’s expected of you once you’re on the field.

Recreational leagues — clubs like Willamette United, Eastside Timbers, Lake Oswego Soccer Club, and small-sided leagues like Soccer-5 — mostly use self-assign, also called Claim: open games are posted and you take one, first-come. This is the easiest way in as a beginner, because taking a game is the same as having it. Soccer-5 in particular is explicitly a recreational league, with an expectation that new referees are still learning.

Competitive leagues, including OYSA, work differently. You can request a game, but requesting is asking for it, not being given it. The assignor reviews who asked and picks based on experience, position suitability (CR, AR1, AR2), past performance, reliability, and sometimes simply who asked first. If you want a guaranteed game as a beginner, choose a league that self-assigns rather than one that assigns by request.

Tournaments cluster in summer, when weekly league play mostly pauses. Each tournament can run through its own assigning organization or platform — RefTown, RefInsight, GotSport — separate from whichever one you use for your regular league, so working a tournament outside your usual assignor usually means registering there first. See Assigning platforms for how to register on each. Expect several games over a single weekend rather than one a week.

Pay varies by league, tournament, and role, and none of the sources behind this page give a single current rate. Ask your assignor what a given game pays before you commit to it — see Working with your assignor.

What each role actually does on the field, and which age groups use a solo center versus a three-person crew, is covered in Center referee and assistant referee.