In an effort to improve game reporting we are starting an initiative to provide you tools and guidelines to best assist you in reporting your games.

The Massachusetts State Referee Committee (MSRC) has created a “Reporting module”.  It is our understanding that this will be part of the recertification process moving forward.  This module and its contents are based on an approach from US Soccer.  On this webpage is a link to a document that refers to “Supplemental reports”.  Many leagues other than ECYSA utilize the US Soccer Supplemental report when there are incidents to report after a game.  The ECYSA software incorporates those functions.  If you work games outside of ECYSA, particularly for US Officials (including MTOC), you may need to utilize that form for post game reporting.  Regardless, the points in these guidelines for reporting are the same for the ECYSA Reporting function and the US Soccer Supplemental report.  One slight difference to other leagues is that ECYSA requires the reporting of injuries.  Our software includes that function.  If play is stopped for an injury (the injured player should leave the game), the injury should be reported.  If a player is substituted on a dead ball due to an injury (not a proper substitution moment) the injury should be reported.  There are a number of reasons injuries need to be reported so please make an effort to include them in your reports.

Also included as a link on this webpage is a poster created by US Soccer and distributed by the MSRC.  It outlines the 5 W’s for reporting. “WHEN, WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHY”.  This standard form of reporting should be applied to your ECYSA reports.

Here is a simple example of the text that might appear in a Referee’s post game report.  “In the 67 th  minute (WHEN), player Smith (WHO) recklessly tackled an opponent (WHAT), near midfield (WHERE).  He was cautioned for the reckless tackle (WHY).

A couple of points:  The class of foul (reckless) is referenced directly from the LOTG.  You would not caution a “careless foul” so the text used is critical to an accurate report. Please use the text from the LOTG whenever possible in your descriptions.   Also, referees often include the restart in their report.  In most cases, the restart is irrelevant to the sanction and does not need to be included.  Please consider this, on any given Saturday there are approximately 350 ECYSA games. Our Commissioners and the Referee Assignor review reports from every game.  Any coach can submit a report along with the referees.  If the Referee and both Head Coaches submit reports (without consideration of assistant coaches and AR’s), that is potentially over 1000 reports for the Commissioners to read every week, decipher and act on.  Please be efficient in your reports.

On the web page is another link to a document with a number of examples taken from actual ECYSA Referee reports with suggested replacement text.  We have tried to highlight the deficiencies to help referees understand the basics required by ECYSA in the game reports.

If you have questions about the 5 W’s approach, proper text to be utilized, application of the LOTG in reports, or any related topic. please do not hesitate to reach out to our Referee Assignor, Ben Reed.  Our goal is to help you provide accurate and efficient reports for the ECYSA Board of Directors to properly administer sanctions and also to recognize great sporting behavior when it occurs.

Thank you for your attention to writing great accurate reports.