There are some schedule changes that need to be made.I am color coding everything to try to make things easy to spot. I will do my best to email everyone whose schedule has been altered for whatever reason but just in case I don't or the email doesn't go through, please double check the schedule to see if there have been any alterations Prior to going to your games.
Anything listed in blue is a friendly match. You can request a spot for a friendly but until team names are in the schedule there is no game at that time
Anything listed in red has been cancelled.
Anything listed in yellow is uncovered.
Anything listed in green has been confirmed.
Anything listed in orange is a schedule modification that needs to be confirmed.
Up until now all the feedback I had been receiving had been positive as far as the officiating. That unfortunately changed this past weekend. There were two things in particular that were mentioned to me by multiple people that really got me agitated, not knowing the laws and the referee not moving during a match. When working by yourself you should be moving quite a bit during the game. You will want to stay out of the way of play so your positioning most of the time will be moving along the touch lines along with play. When play moves across from one side of the field to the other, it is usually a good time to cross the field to the other touch line to get a better view. When working in a two referee system both referees should be covering the entirety of their touch line, from goal line to goal line.
There were two basic law issues, not even league alterations, that when I heard about made me first think it was a bad joke and when I saw they weren't kidding made me go for a box of Tums. They both involve the goalkeeper. On Goal Clearances (p.30 of the LI Futsal LOTG) the keeper must put the ball into play using their hands. Rolling or throwing both work. As soon as a keeper puts the ball at their feet at the taking of a goal clearance, the referee needs to instruct the keeper that he/she needs to distribute the ball by using their hands on goal clearances. Secondly, in U13 games and older the goalie "two touch" rule during dynamic play applies. Once the keeper releases the ball from their possession they may not not touch the ball again unless one of the following happens:
the ball is touched by an opponent
the ball goes out of play
the keeper touches the ball in the opponents half of the field
There were multiple reports of referees not calling this because the ball had crossed over the halfway line. This rule was changed in 2012. I really don't understand why this is an issue. It is an integral part of how the game is played and it can not be ignored or altered. The referee closest to the keeper must watch out for this.
There was also an incident last week where a parent made purposeful contact with a referee after having been told to leave the vicinity due to his actions. In the event that someone, no matter who it is, makes unwanted physical contact with you, follow the ENY Assault Protocol. A copy of it is at the bottom of this page in case you need it. As soon as you are able, please let myself and John Branca know so we can help protect you. Because of the reports written by both referees on the game we were able to find out who the person was and they are now banned from attending any LI Futsal function.
When reporting cards you MUST write the name of the players and/or coaches and spell the name as it appears on the roster. Jersey numbers are useless as they are interchangeable at any time. The system used to track yellow cards uses names as players may play on more than one team. If you don't write names in the description section of the supplemental report, the report is useless.