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Futsal and indoor soccer referee scheduling

Referee scheduling for indoor soccer and futsal leagues.

Fill a weeknight of short games on one or two fields, with two referees, one, or a timekeeper as well. Send the night by text or email when it’s ready, and see who has accepted each kickoff.

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  • Futsal and indoor soccer set-ups
  • Referees need no account
  • Youth and adult divisions together

A worked example

Tuesday night at an indoor facility

Westgate Indoor books its two fields in 50-minute slots from 6:00. Youth divisions play first, adults after. It runs as an indoor soccer organization, so each new game starts with one Referee. Here is the night once the assignor has filled most of it.

Westgate Indoor, Field 1

  • 6:00–6:45U10 Boys

    Theo Grant

  • 6:50–7:35U12 Girls

    Theo Grant

  • 7:40–8:25Coed Open

    Dana Whitfield, Luis Romero

  • 8:30–9:15Men’s 30+

    Dana Whitfield, Luis Romero

Westgate Indoor, Field 2

  • 6:00–6:45U11 Girls

    Priya Shah

  • 6:50–7:35U13 Boys

    Priya Shah

  • 7:40–8:25Women’s Open

    Priya Shah, open

  • 8:30–9:15Men’s Open

    Theo Grant, open

The adult games use two referees, so the assignor added the suggested Second Referee position to each. When Theo is picked for the 6:50 game, the picker lists his 6:00 game under “Also working”. That isn’t an overlap, because the earlier game ends at 6:45. Trying him on the 6:50 game on Field 2 as well would show “Overlaps”. Both are warnings; the assignor decides.

Enter end times. A game with none is assumed to run 75 minutes in an indoor soccer organization (80 in futsal). That makes the 6:00 game look as though it runs to 7:15, past the 6:50 start, so keeping Theo on the next game is flagged as an overlap, and so is every other back-to-back pick that night. The warning is marked as assumed, but a night full of them hides a real one. With the 45-minute end times entered, only genuine clashes are flagged.

Inside Ref Grid

Set up for short sessions on weeknights

Indoor sessions are often a few weeks long, on the same nights each week, with youth and adult divisions in one building.

Futsal or indoor soccer

Ref Grid sets up the two separately. A futsal organization starts each game with Referee and Second Referee, and suggests Third Referee and Timekeeper when you add a position. An indoor soccer organization starts with one position, Referee, and suggests Second Referee and Timekeeper.

Suggested roles are never added for you, so a game only shows as short of an official for positions it actually has.

Youth early, adults late

Division is free text, so “U12 Girls” and “Men’s 30+” can share a facility night. Fees sit on each position, which lets a late adult game pay more than an early youth one and a timekeeper less than a referee.

The whole session in one import

Bring a winter session’s games in from CSV or Excel, or from Arbiter and Assignr exports, with an end-time column. You map the columns and see a preview before anything is saved, and no referee is contacted.

One link per game, no account

A referee you send three games on a Tuesday gets three texts or emails and answers each from its link, with nothing to install. The page shows your organization, the date, start and end time, the facility and field, the teams, the division, their position and the fee.

Reminders on game day

Reminders are off until you switch them on, and go only to referees who have accepted. For evening games, a reminder set a few hours before kickoff reaches referees during the day; you can set up to three, from an hour to 30 days ahead.

Closed nights and swapped fields

Move a game to the other field or a later slot and the referees who were sent it get the old and new details. Cancel a night when the facility closes and they get a cancellation notice, and their response links stop working.

At the end of the session, the pay report lists accepted assignments on games whose kickoff has passed and exports as CSV or QuickBooks Online bills. It can’t tell whether a forfeit was played, so check those before you pay. Ref Grid pays no one.

Outdoor clubs going indoors

When the same referees work both

Each Ref Grid account has one organization, and each organization is set up for one sport. A club already assigning its outdoor season in Ref Grid has two ways to add a winter indoor session.

Add the indoor games to your soccer organization

The referees are already on your roster, and the overlap warnings see their indoor and outdoor games together. New games start with Center, AR1 and AR2, so edit the positions on each indoor game: remove the ARs, or rename them, before you send.

An indoor game with no end time is assumed to run 90 minutes, so end times matter even more here.

Keep a separate account for indoor

An account set up for indoor soccer starts every game with Referee, or with Referee and Second Referee for futsal, and assumes the indoor game lengths for overlap warnings. The cost is a second subscription (see pricing), a second roster to keep, a second login, and no overlap warning between a referee’s indoor and outdoor games.

For the outdoor season itself, see soccer referee scheduling.

Limits

What Ref Grid doesn’t do

  • No futsal rules or referee levels. Nothing checks whether a referee is qualified for an adult game or a youth one. Keep that in your notes on each referee, and check your league’s requirements.
  • No auto-assign. You choose every referee for every slot, and referees can’t claim open games.
  • No dated availability. Referees can tell you which weeknights and times of day they prefer. The weeks they’re away over the holidays stay in whatever form or sheet you use now.
  • No chasing unanswered assignments. The dashboard counts what is awaiting a reply. Following up is up to you.
  • No check on games elsewhere. Ref Grid knows only the games in your organization, and doesn’t check the drive between two facilities.

Where to go next

One plan, with a free trial: see the pricing.

Request a demo

See how Ref Grid would work for your league or club

Tell us about your organization and we’ll get back to you.

Prefer to look around yourself? You can set up your organization without talking to us: get started.

Roughly how many you assign.

What you run today, and what you are hoping to change.

We reply by email. No automated call.

Set up your next indoor session.

Import the games with their end times, set the crew on each, and send the first night when both fields are covered.

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