The in-person field courses for new Grassroots Referees will start taking place in August, following the normal summer pause for Arizona. Check back here to see scheduled courses and sign up.

Why is there a pause?

In Arizona, almost all youth soccer activities stop after the completion of the USYS State Cup Championships are completed in May. This is primarily due to our extreme summer weather. League play usually resumes in early to mid August. Since there are virtually no games taking place, there is not a need for referees during this time period.

In addition, the US Soccer registration calendar begins on July 1. The significance of this date is that new referees registered BEFORE July 1 must pay registration for that year, then pay AGAIN for the next year after July 1. This does not make financial sense to have referees complete registration in June to then have to pay again after July. Along with the registration payment, since there are no games in June and July, a new referee would not get any game experience nor payment for games during this time period.

Since July 1 marks the new year for registration, it also marks the new year for course content. Any changes to the FIFA Laws of the Game generally take effect on this date, so referee courses must be updated to reflect these changes. Referee course content is provided exclusively by US Soccer, so each state must wait for them to make changes to the courses for the new year.

For these reasons, along with the extreme weather, ASRA does not conduct in-person field training until league play resumes in early August. However, we always need more referees, and we look forward to welcoming all future Grassroots referees later this summer!