To be an outstanding soccer official, one must master three skill sets: knowledge of the rules, physical fitness, and courage/understanding to make the right calls. Officials need a strong command of the rulebook, especially regarding offsides, fouls, penalty decisions, and injury management. They must also maintain fitness to keep up with play and be close to critical areas of the field. Finally, officials require courage to make preventive, proactive decisions and deal with challenging situations, acting with confidence and control over the match.

1. To be an outstanding WCSOA soccer
official you must master and maintain
three skill sets:
1. Knowledge of the rules
2. Physical fitness
3. Courage and understanding to
make the right calls

2. 1. Knowledge of the rules
• Applying rules to critical areas (special
situations):
a. Offsides
b. Fouls and misconduct (yellow/red cards),
which includes dissent
c. Penalty kick decisions
d. Challenges with the goalkeeper
e. Equipment violations
f. Substitutions
g. Injury management, i.e. possible
concussions
h. Restarts (safety of the player is most
important)

3. Knowing the rules enhances
your confidence in calls you
whistle or do not whistle

4. 2. Physical fitness
• Developing and maintaining fitness is the
most challenging of the three tasks.
• Officials need a good on-the-field presence.
A positive physical appearance provides a
solid foundation for coaches and players to
respect you.
• By being fit you can use all of your thought
processes to use the rules and make the
right calls.

5. • Allows the official to “get to the play”:
a. Coffin corner as the trail official
b. Boxing in the area of the ball
c. Helping out on restarts after a foul as the trail
official
d. Corner kicks:trail just outside the penalty area
e. Lead official always being even with the second
to last defender

6. Thus, be fit enough to handle your assigned
match. If you are close to the play, coaches
will have a hard time complaining about calls,
and you are making things easier for you and
your brother official by having much better
coverage in the two-man system.
Making wrong decisions because you can’t
keep up with the pace of the match will make
your job much more problematic, not only for
yourself, but for your brother official as well.
By being close to the play it makes it much
easier to “sell the call”.

7. 3. Courage and understanding to make the
right calls
• Soccer is more than a set of rules. It is a
series of judgments and interpretations.
• Be preventive and pro-active in dealing with
challenging situations on the field (courage).
• Develop an assortment of verbal and non-
verbal means to deal with coaches and
players.
• Be prepared to use all your tools (including
cards) when needed in the match. Do not
hesitate, but act with confidence.
• Be in control of the match-control the
“controllables”.

8. • Stay mentally focused for 80+ minutes. You
have to be “on your game” before it even
starts. Start out the match at 100% and then
get better as the match progresses.
• No match is ever the same and soccer allows
us the ability to make constant improvement.
• Recognition:
a. Persistent infringement
b. Contact with the goalkeeper
c. Narrow focus on two opponents
d. Tactical foul i.e. breaking up an attack
e. Off ball fouls
f. Constantly watch players during dead ball periods
(critical times):
1. After a goal is scored.
2. On a free kick after a foul.

9. • Trouble in most matches occurs when
officials either do not sense trouble “brewing”,
or do not act decisively when it becomes fact.
If you can recognize these critical areas then
you are on your way to a well managed
match.
An official’s quantity of calls does not equate
to courage, but his or her quality of calls
does. Remain in charge with proper
utilization of people and situational
management skills.

10. When you are working a soccer match:
• You need to be both mentally and physically
fit and focused on doing the right job.
• Know the rule book and be able to execute
decisions in a split second.
• Strive to get every call right.
• Be consistent with your calls throughout the
entire match. (If it is a foul in the 1st minute of
play, then it is a foul in the 80th minute).
• Make players safety most important.
There is no better feeling than knowing that
you gave everything you had for 80+ minutes.
Art Hamm, WCSOA Interpreter