2025 Referee Recertification courses are now available in the US Soccer Learning center.  Use this Link to sign up in the US Soccer Learning Center. Click on the Registration button then the Proceed to Registration button. You may have to right click the links and “open in a new window”. You may also have to clear your cache. Chromebooks are not recommended for this.

If you register through another state, there is a $50 activation fee to have your Ref Insight assigning account re-activated and be assigned games.

You may register for this course if you were registered in either 2023 or 2024.

All of the course content is in the Learning Center for this registration period. There is no in-person or virtual component required for 2025.

All Referees ≥18, or when you turn 18, are required to maintain a current status in the Learning Center for your background check & SafeSport. All Referees will need to keep a current status in their Safe & Healthy Playing Environments (Courses/Available Courses/ Supplemental Courses/Intro to Safety). Assignors cannot assign you games past your expiration date, so don’t lose games by delaying your background check or SafeSport renewal or allowing them to expire.

Once you start the recertification course, you will have 30 days to complete the assignments. Ref Insight assignment platform re-activation and badge mailing are done on a weekly basis. 2025 badges will be sent to the address listed in your Referee profile in the Learning Center.

Some game assignments come quite early in the spring, but most come out one to two weeks before the start of the outdoor season. Don’t be late and miss games.

WisRef Points of Emphasis for each of the last several years:

· What You Allow, You Encourage, and Pay It Forward. Deal with the problem, or it gets worse. Take appropriate action, so that problem does not make a younger or less experienced referee quit on their next game due to poor behavior from a coach or parent that you did not deal with today.

· Game Reports and Incident Reports - Complete Them Properly and Timely. WisRef, WYSA and WSL have noticed a higher quality of information in Incident Reports, which allows the WYSA and WSL to more quickly, and more importantly, appropriately sanction for offenses. Good Incident Reports will have the when-who (did what to whom)-what-where-how-and how the game was restarted, all clearly written and factually based.

· Do not allow Referee Abuse. If you don’t report it, it is like it never happened. Help us help you. If coaches or spectators engage in Referee Abuse, complete a Referee Abuse form in Ref Insight. Identify them by time, location, description of the person/clothing, what was exactly was said, to whom, when, and the tone and manner. If you feel you are subject to Referee Assault, fill out that form and contact the police if you feel threatened, then contact your assignor.

· Dealing with the behavior of coaches, and Referee interaction with coaches. Every time a coach stands and voices an opinion may not rise to a warning, caution or send off. It depends on how they do it, how often they do it, and the exact wording they use. In any case, do not allow Referee Abuse by a coach to continue, and report it

Thanks and good luck on the fields.

Thomas Mesalk tom@wisref.org
Registrar, State Referee Committee
Wisconsin Soccer Referee Development Program
http://www.WisRef.org

Referee Course information is posted on http://www.WisRef.org .