Assignment Policy
1. The EODSA will be responsible for appointing all referees for the following games
ERSL (full field only)
OCSL
NCISL
Ontario Cup (U13 - U18)
2. The EODSA will be responsible for appointing all assistant referees for the following games
ERSL (Under 21)
OCSL (Mens Premier, C1 & C2, Womens Premier, C1 & C2, OT1)
NCISL (Mens Div 1 only)
Ontario Cup (U13 - U18)
3. Each division of the above leagues will be graded each year by the DRC between 10 and 5 where 10 is the highest.
4. Each district pool referee in EODSA will be graded each year by the Ontario Soccer between 8 and 5 where 8 is the highest. Regional referees are graded 9 and Provincial 10.
5. Under normal circumstances referees will only be assigned games at or below the grade that they are at, e.g. a grade 8 referee could be assigned to grade 8 or below games.
6. In situations where there is as a shortage of referees, the referee assigner may assign a referee to a game that is higher than his / her grade with the guidance of the EODSA DRC.
7. A referee may be assigned, for upgrading purposes, a game higher than his / her grade at the request of the EODSA DRC or Ontario Soccer Referee Department.
8. All referees will be able to select their availability and preferences for leagues, divisions and locations. Under normal circumstances the referee assigner will respect these preferences. No referee will be forced to officiate a game he or she does not wish to do.
9. Where possible assignments will be done at least 7 days in advance of a game.
10. To ensure that assignments are done fairly for both referees and leagues the following procedure is followed
a) Each day a leagues games are identified and sorted so that the
highest graded games receive priority i.e. grade 10 games will have
priority over grade 9 games and so on
b) On the first pass of an assignment run only referees who prefer
that league on that day of the week will be considered for the
assignments. For example only referees who set a preference of the ERSL
for a Monday will be considered for the ERSL games on a Monday. On this
first pass referees will be further filtered so that they will only be
considered for the game if they set the location of that game as a
preferred location. Typically 70% of games are assigned after the first
pass.
c) The second pass of the assignment run is identical to the first
pass except this time a referee will be considered for that game if the
location is acceptable to him or her. Typically this will increase the
assigned games to 80%.
d) All remaining games for each league are now assigned using the
third pass of the assignment run. In this case all leagues are
considered equal and assignments are attempted for referees who set
their league preference to acceptable and their field preference to
preferred. This typically will complete the assignment process
e) Should any games remain a fourth run is performed where again all
leagues are considered equal and assignments are attempted for referees
who set their league and field preference to acceptable.
11. The assignment procedure described above is repeated on a daily basis until 48 hours prior to a game. After this point a manual assignment process takes place in an attempt to get the game covered
12. For all game assignments, an email is sent to the referee asking him or her to accept or decline the game on the assignment system. The referee is requested to do this in a timely manner. The referee assigner may decide to remove the assignment if the referee has not confirmed the game within 72 hours of the game date.
13. The referee assigner may make modifications to the assignments at any time if it is in the best interests of the EODSA and remains within this policy.
14. A league may a request to the DRC a manual assignment process on a game by game basis prior to 48 hours before a game for a good cause, e.g. for a cup final or for a potentially difficult game.
15. The EODSA DRC may request a manual assignment process on a game by game basis prior to 48 hours.
16. When a referee declines a game invitation he or she is made not available for that day for other assignments. The referee may request to be returned to the referee pool for a valid reason by contacting the referee assigner
17. When the referee assigner is having difficulty to find a referee for a game the league will be contacted by telephone no later than 2 hours prior to kick off. The league will then decide if it wishes the referee assigned to continue to look for a referee or not.
18. When a game is canceled or modified by a league it must notify the referee assigner and assigned referees by applying that change on the assignment system. When the cancellation or modification is for a game with less than 24 hours notice, the league is required to telephone the referee assigner and the assigned referees prior to making the modification on the assignment system.
19. If a referee has to decline a game assignment after he has already accepted it he or she may do so according to the following process (EODSA Cancellation procedure)
a) If the game is more than 48 hours away he or she may decline the game on the assignment system
b) If the game is less than 48 hours away but more than 24 hours away the referee must email or telephone the referee assigner.
c) If the game is less than 24 hours away the referee must telephone the referee assigner
20. Following a game, a referee must submit a game report on the assignment system to indicate that he or she did attend the game
21. If a referee did not attend a game the league must report the incident to the EODSA who may decide to take disciplinary action against the referee within the guidelines of the Ontario Soccer published rules.
22. If a referee contravenes any leagues published rules they must report the incident to the EODSA who may decide to take disciplinary action against the referee within the guidelines of the Ontario Soccer published rules.
23. A league, under its policies, may wish to reject a referee from its games.