We publish a Referee Procedures manual for fall and spring league play. The following items are changes that ASL and AWSL make to those procedures for the summer competitions. The fall and spring referee procedures book is on the web page under Referee Information.

PLEASE NOTE THAT GAME REPORTS ARE DUE IN BILL ALBERT’S HANDS NO LATER THAN SEVEN DAYS AFTER YOUR GAME.  IF NOT, YOU DON’T GET PAID.  THE SUMMER RULES AREN’T DIFFERENT ON THAT SUBJECT.

Please note that any form of legally executed slide tackle is a rule violation in ASL coed play. It is considered dangerous play for purposes of that competition and should be penalized by the awarding of an indirect free kick against the offending team. It is the rule that was voted into place by players and we expect it to be enforced. The concept of a tackle implies the two people are making a play on the ball. Hence, it means that a person who slides to tackle the ball from the opposing player, regardless of the quality of the slide tackle, is to be considered to have engaged in dangerous play and an indirect free kick awarded to the opposing team. A player who is not within playing distance of anyone who slides to recover a ball risks his or her own connective tissue and should not be penalized.

Summer Passcard and Roster Rules-Read This, it’s very important

We have completely revamped our player registration system. Players register online and we print a color passcard with the picture integrated in the printout. In a few emergency cases, we have pasted a picture in, but those are extremely rare. Every passcard will be laminated, have the player’s signature on the front, and have a pink sticker with the team name on the back. Do not, under any circumstances, accept the passcards that we used in the fall and spring that have a round fall and/or spring sticker on them . Every player must present a summer passcard issued under the online system, with a summer validation sticker.  

Next, every team should present you a printed roster from the registration system. The good thing about this roster is that the names on the roster are generated from the same data base as the passcard is. Hence, the names should match. Two common sense items.   First, it’s a new system and the team rep may forget to go on line and print the roster. For this season, please let them play the game so long as they have player passcards. As the names have to match up, so long as you check the registration sticker on the back, you will have the confirmation you need. Please note on your game report if you did not receive a roster and we will remind the team rep.

Monday-Thursday – Coed soccer. Every player MUST present a passcard for that team. No guest players.

Thursdays and Fridays – Men’s and womens’ over-30 soccer. Every player MUST present a passcard for that team. No guest players.

Sunday mornings – Men’s Open Division. Every player MUST present a passcard for that team.

Sunday afternoon – Men’s and women's 5 a side. The team rep MUST provide you a roster of players for that 5 a side team. For ASL, up to 11 players are allowed. A player may only play on one team for 5 a side, but the player can use a current passcard for any team in the league. They do not have to have a passcard specifically issued for that 5 a side team. Hence, Jim Abram could be included on the Excel 5 a Side roster and play on his Rogues passcard. The 5 a side registration for ASL is based on a team fee, so we don’t require a second card for a player who wishes to play there. Technically, I think you could say Mr. Abram would be considered a gust player in this instance.  For AWSL, individual players are registered and each player must have a summer passcard with the team name of the team on the schedule.

All of the player passcards have been issued in the last month. As a result, every picture should be current and resemble the player. This is different from what you may expected in the past. During the game, most teams will have players arrive late and wish to dash right into the game. Please do not have the player check in with the assistant referee. We run into two problems with this procedure. First, the assistant referee quite often forgets to turn the passcard over to the referee. Second, the assistant referee is likely not going to take the time to examine the card to determine that it is indeed the player’s card. The player should bring the passcard to the referee. You should check it against his face to make sure it is him. This is how we often get illegal players in the games. If the player provides you a passcard and you cannot establish that the player is actually the person represented on the passcard, advise the player that he or she will not participate in today’s game, retain the passcard, and advise the team captain of your actions. If the player can produce a government-issued ID card that confirms he or she is the person on the, that’s fine. Usually, they will not be able to do this.

Players do not register at the field. If a player shows you his signed passcard that is not laminated with a green sticker on the back, that doesn’t count. The League offers numerous opportunities to register during the season and the Team Representatives are all perfectly aware of when those are. If someone did not get registered, that is not your problem to address at the field.

Summer Uniform Rules

Players in coed, over-30 and 5 a side summer competitions are not required to wear numbered uniforms. They must all wear the same color. It is your judgment as to what complies with that, as you need to be able to differentiate between teams and red versus light red may not work.  As noted in bold above, players in the Sunday men’s open league must wear numbered uniforms with permanently affixed numbers and no duplicates or switching jerseys.

Therefore, for the wekeday and 5 a side competitions the roster will not include uniform numbers. If you stop play to deal with misconduct, the player is required to provide his or her name. If they do not, ask the captain. If the captain will not cooperate, terminate the game, complete your game report and deliver the report and the passcards to the league office. When you terminate a game under any circumstances, please do not discuss the matter with the teams or offer up your opinion as to what the League should do.

Filing Your Game Report

We need you to properly complete and file a game report for each game.  For the Sunday men's 11 a side soccer, it's serious business and the game report rules are the same as fall and spring.  We need them complete, legible, timely, and please use the reasons defined in the Laws of the Game for misconduct, not "pushing" and such.  We need the names of the players who scored goals included.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, you must file your game report within seven (7) days of the game and you must send it to the ASRA address, not to ASL. If Bill Albert reports the game report was not received by that date, we don’t pay you. We do pay your ARs.

If you file your reports using the electronic form, please READ the report before you final it. That avoids you looking like a fool by leaving in information from the game you just finished reporting.

Please make sure you are using the correct team roster when completing your game report. We receive at least ten game reports per year that reverse the teams for scoring and misconduct, which makes it somewhat difficult to keep track of League activities.

If you do not file a game report, your assistant referees do not get paid until we chase you down, which takes a few months. If you wish to have supportive assistant referees, it is our suggestion that getting them paid is one step in the right direction.

Game report forms are provided free of charge by the Albuquerque Soccer Referees Association (ASRA). They should be returned to the ASRA address on the back off the form. You should retain the pink copy. We also have those available in Spanish.

Player Send Offs

Unpleasant as the thought is, you may find yourself compelled to send a player off during a game.

At this point, you need only insure that the player is not replaced and that the player immediately leaves the area, taking his or her equipment along. After being sent off, the player serves no useful purpose at the game and the League rules provide that the player must leave. If the player does not leave after being requested to do so, terminate the game and return the passcards to the ASL office.   If the player or anyone else with the team requests your name, advise them that they can contact the League and we will advise them that we already know your name.

Please note that FIFA rules provide that a player who is sent off in a 5 a side game (or Futsal, by their lingo) can be replaced either after the opposing team has scored or after two minutes. We do follow that rule. However, the player who has been sent off is required to leave immediately.

If the player directs foul, abusive, or insulting language at you are your AR(s), that is referee abuse and we expect it to be reported and we will suspend the players appropriately. ASL requires a minimum four (4) game suspension for such actions. In addition, ASL fines a player $50 and requires the player to post a $50 bond for a period of twelve months following the send off. Please note in your game report who the language was directed at so it is clear whether it was referee abuse or simply language directed at another player or teammate.

In any case, we need to have the player passcard returned to the League, not to ASRA. Let’s emphasize that point again. Return the player passcard to the League, not to ASRA. This is the address to which you should return the card:

Why is that? Well, ASRA doesn’t handle discipline, ASL does. Also, the player may file a protest over the sendoff and, in fact, be reinstated. This actually happens on rare occasion. In any case, the passcard is League property and must be returned to us. Please enclose a copy of your game report or additional explanation (factual, please) so we know what we are dealing with. Please mail the card the day after the game. 

Missing Passcards

On very rare occasion, a player may in fact be eligible to play and have either lost the card or had the referee lose it.

First, a lecture on how we can avoid these situations. At the conclusion of the game, count the cards and make sure you return as many as the team gave you. Make sure you request the captain do the same. We often get cards turning up three weeks after the fact because the referee found it in his bag. The player has either not played or had another card made. We do not like the idea of players having more than one passcard. It creates many interesting opportunities we would rather not think about.

If a card is lost in the course of the game and does not turn up, please call the League office and let us know. We will reproduce a card for the player (assuming he is still eligible) at no charge. Things do get lost. 

Back to the subject at hand. If a player does not have a passcard and wishes to play, the answer is quite simple. No.

If the player or Team Representative has realized that a passcard is lost, they can contact the League and so advise us. If it is not practical to get a replacement card made in time for the game, we will provide the player a form on League letterhead, signed by a League officer, that gives the player permission to participate in that game only. You should receive an original and you should keep the form. The player must also show you some form of picture ID. 

If a player is too lazy to pick up his passcard after a red card suspension, that is no one’s problem other than his. The cards are available at the league office and it requires little effort.

If you allow a player to play without a passcard and have not been advised by the League of his eligibility, you are simply creating a nightmare for yourself and for us, including liability problems for anything that happens because of that player. Please do not do it.

Lousy Weather and What to Do

Given the wide geographical area over which we schedule summer games, we often cannot determine whether games can be played in time to post noticed. Therefore, we leave it to the judgment of the referee as to whether the game can be played based on rain and lightning. Player and referee safety is paramount in this process. We can always find another day to play a game. However, we can’t repair someone getting hit by lightning and undo that. Our ability to get makeup games played is pretty tough, but that’s not your problem and should not effect your judgment in determining whether the field is playable or the lightning is not close enough.

If the game does not get started due to the referee’s judgment, please file a report so indicating. We’ve changed our policy and will pay each official who is reported as having shown up to the game $15. If the game is terminated during the 90 minute play, we pay the full fee.

If we have rain like last year, we will post cancellations on the web page. Hopefully that was a rare month.

Also, depending on conditions, we have the past several years had the city contact us asking that games not be played during heavy smoke conditions while the western United States has been burning up with forest fires. If it ever gets warm and those conditions start up again this summer, please check the phone line at 341-5015 and the web page for current information.