As of 2016 our playoffs take place in one single day, on a Saturday in August (so usually 2 days after the Thursday of the season). The teams that participate are only the older age divisions: U14 up to U18, that play full field soccer. Obviously, the refs for these games are the refs that are old enough and have the qualifications and experience to do these games. When asked by the head referee about your availability for that day, you will indicate if you are available on Saturday a.m. only, p.m. only, or all day. You will receive the info about the games and the time slots from the head referee via email, and you must confirm the assignments, as you do during the regular season.
Once you are at the Park (either Eastgate or Beavermead, or Fleming), there are steps you need to follow to make sure that things are running smoothly:
- First thing you are going to do is to be at your park 15 minutes prior to the Kick Off time which is the time that the game starts, or it is supposed to start.
- Then, you need to approach the convenors. At Beavermead Park the convenors stay at the pavilion (the shed by the lake). At Eastgate Park the convenors stay either at the front entrance or between the two buildings. At Fleming they’re in the clubhouse.
- You must let the conveners know that you are there and they will tell you if there are any last moment changes. If not, once they are notified, you will go to your field and get ready to start your game.
- Please try to start your game on time and stay on time. I always assign you on the same field (with rare exceptions) for consecutive games; therefore, you are able to control your pace. Sticking to the schedule is very important, especially knowing that it is a long day. so always remember that.
- All games are usually straight 30 minutes (no halves).
- All games must have a winner, which means that, in case of a tie during regular time, we go straight to penalty kicks. Normal FIFA rules apply for the PKs.
- During the game, the ref should record ONLY the FINAL SCORE and yellow/red cards along with special incident and nothing else (no names, no MVPs and such).
- Rather than reporting the final score to the statistician via email (as you usually do during the season), during the playoffs you should report the scores to the conveners on the spot. This is imperative, because we need to know the final score to determine who moves further up during the playoffs. So, remember that you do not email the statistician. You will leave the final score the conveners on the spot right after your games.
- To save you the time of moving around, and to make sure that you control your own time, I usually assign you two or three consecutive games on the same field. However, you must report your scores at the end of each game, which means, you need to contact the conveners on the spot- if you have your smart phone with you please feel free to text it to me right after the game. We will try to help you by sending out (whenever available or possible) the sub referees or other people appointed by the conveners, to collect that information. However, if no one comes, you must report the final score to the conveners before you start your new game.
- If you have issued a yellow or red card you will need to follow the steps that you follow during the season for reporting it. First, you need to notify immediately the conveners on the spot, and when you go home you write the card up and email it as usual to Winston and Christine but run it by me first.
- Remember that trading players (ONLY if teams choose to do so to avoid defaulted game because we as refs do not interfere) is allowed during the playoffs but is not mandatory e even though it is during the season. Also, calls up players are NOT allowed during Playoffs. If you are not sure or can’t remember the call up player rule you need to revisit again the Rules and Regulations on our website.
- If you are assigned as a substitute referee you will receive the same fee as the regular fee, however you are “on call”. You will have to report to the conveners and stay nearby all the time, so in case that a referee fails to show up, or shows up late, or gets injured during the game, you are right there on the spot, ready to go and replace that ref and ensuring that the day doesn’t get any longer and that we stick to the schedule and its time frame. Also, you might be asked to go around the fields to collect the scores from the refs, to save time.
- All refs’ honorariums for Playoffs are posted on the web.
These are pretty clear rules that try to cover everything, however if you have any question do not hesitate to ask. Let’s enjoy this great event and have fun.
Yours in soccer,
Fevri Pazari-Club Head Referee