Futsal Referees for Hire on Long Island

Futsal is not indoor soccer with a smaller ball

Coordinators often book futsal the way they would book a turf-dome indoor league, and the mismatch shows up in the first five minutes. Futsal is played on a hard court, usually a gym floor, with touchlines instead of dasher boards. Teams play five a side including the goalkeeper. The ball is smaller and heavier with a low bounce. When the ball goes out over the touchline, play restarts with a kick-in, not a throw-in. Substitutions happen on the fly through a marked zone. Restarts run on a short count. None of that is how a walled indoor soccer league works, and an official who mostly works boarded turf leagues has to switch habits to call it well.

Futsal also has its own rulebook. FIFA publishes the Futsal Laws of the Game separately from the outdoor Laws of the Game, and U.S. Soccer treats futsal refereeing as a separate pathway. That is the standard we point coordinators to when a question comes up. Your league may modify it — plenty of Long Island rec programs run a running clock, skip timeouts, or adjust the foul rules for young players — and that is fine. What matters is that the modification is written down and that we know it before the first whistle.

If your games are actually boarded or walled turf soccer inside a private dome, that is a different booking. Our indoor sports facility referees page covers facility-run turf leagues. Stay here when the surface is a hard court and the game is futsal.

The crew: who stands where

Under FIFA's futsal laws, a match is controlled by two officials on the court: the referee and the second referee, working opposite touchlines. In full-law competition, two more officials sit at the table — a third referee and a timekeeper. Between them they run the clock, record timeouts, track accumulated fouls for each team, signal when a team reaches its fifth foul in a period, and time the reduced-numbers period after a send-off.

That four-person structure is what high-level futsal uses. Most Long Island recreation futsal does not need all four. The common request we see is one of these:

What you are running	What to request
Young rec players, running clock, modified fouls	Often one referee per court. Say whether a coach or parent is keeping score.
Older rec or competitive league night	Two on-court referees per match is the safer ask, especially in a crowded gym.
Affiliated or sanctioned futsal	Whatever the competition rules require — often two referees plus table officials, and possibly a futsal-specific license.
Holiday or weekend tournament, several courts	A crew plan per court, plus a table person wherever the foul count decides results.
Showcase or tryout scrimmage	Usually a referee or two on court; table staffing only if stats or fouls are being formally recorded.

We assign what your competition requires. We do not invent a crew rule for your league, and we will not argue you into four officials for a U9 Saturday morning session that was written as one whistle.

Why the table decides more games than you think

The futsal rule that surprises outdoor parents most is accumulated fouls. Under the futsal laws, fouls punished with a direct free kick or penalty count toward a team total for that period. The tally resets at the start of each period. Once a team reaches five, that is signaled. From the sixth accumulated foul on, the opponent gets a direct free kick with no defensive wall, taken from the second penalty mark ten meters out or, in some cases, from the spot of the foul when it happened closer to goal. In a tight game, that count can decide the result.

Which means somebody has to keep it accurately. In full-law futsal that is the third referee and timekeeper. In recreation futsal on Long Island it is often a parent with a clipboard, a facility staffer who is also working the front desk, or nobody. That is where the angry conversations start: a coach insists his team is on four fouls, the other bench says six, and the referee on court was watching the ball, not the scoresheet.

If your league uses accumulated fouls, decide before the season who owns the count. If it is us, request a table official. Our scorekeepers and timekeepers page explains how table staffing is booked across sports. If it is a volunteer, give that person the rule in writing and put them where both benches can see them.

Timeouts work the same way. The futsal laws allow a timeout per team per period, requested through the timekeeper. Many rec programs drop timeouts entirely. Either is fine. Pick one and print it on the schedule.

Licensing: futsal, soccer, or neither

This is the question we get most from directors running their first sanctioned event. U.S. Soccer has a separate futsal referee pathway — an entry-level futsal referee course and a regional futsal level that adds a fitness test and match evaluations — alongside its outdoor soccer licenses. Some state referee programs say plainly that an outdoor soccer license is not accepted for affiliated futsal. Recreation futsal that is not affiliated with any sanctioning body may have no license requirement at all beyond what your league sets.

So the right answer depends on your event, and we would rather ask than guess. When you request coverage, tell us:

• whether the event is affiliated or sanctioned, and by whom;
• what license or certification the competition requires for officials;
• whether your venue or league needs background-check or safe-sport documentation for adults working with minors.

We tell you what we can document for that assignment. We do not imply a futsal credential that is not being provided. Our certification and background check guide covers how those checks work for the officials we send.

Most Long Island futsal lives in a gym someone else owns

Turf domes get the attention, but a lot of futsal on the Island happens in school gymnasiums, church and parish gyms, community centers, and recreation buildings rented by the hour. That changes the booking in practical ways that have nothing to do with the laws of the game.

• Building access. Which door is open on a Saturday morning? Is there a security desk or a custodian who needs a name? An official standing at a locked front entrance is not officiating.
• Hard stops. Rented gyms end on time whether your schedule does or not. If the gym must be empty at 9 p.m., a stopped-clock format that runs long will cost you the last game. Tell us the hard stop and we plan match lengths around it.
• Floor rules. Many gyms require non-marking indoor shoes for everyone on the floor, officials included. Put it in the notes.
• Court lines. School gyms are lined for basketball and volleyball. Some programs tape futsal lines; others play to basketball lines. Our officials need to know which lines are live before kickoff, not after the first disputed kick-in.
• Space around the court. Benches, substitution zones, and spectators crowd a gym fast. Where the benches sit decides where the referees can stand.

None of these are exotic. They are just the things a new futsal coordinator forgets, because outdoor fields do not have a custodian or a lock.

Winter is the peak, and the calendar fills from both ends

Futsal on Long Island clusters in the cold months, when outdoor soccer moves inside and families want a winter game. Those same months are when basketball, wrestling, hockey, and indoor volleyball are all chasing officials and gym time. Holiday breaks are the tightest window of all: tournaments and showcases pile into the same few days.

Our winter sports referee booking guide explains how that season compresses. For futsal specifically, the practical advice is simple. Send the session schedule when the gym contract is signed. If a regular official drops mid-session, use the form and say it is a fill-in. We will tell you on the callback whether we can cover it. Same-week coverage is sometimes possible. It is not something we promise.

Tournaments: send the grid, not a vague Saturday

A futsal tournament in a two-court gym can run a lot of short games back to back. That is a staffing plan, not one email per game. To quote it accurately we need:

1. the number of courts running at the same time;
2. the match length and whether the clock stops;
3. start and end times for each court, including any lunch reset;
4. the age groups and which court each one uses;
5. officials per game on court, and whether you need table officials;
6. what happens to the schedule if games run long or a team forfeits.

Stopped-clock futsal runs much longer in real time than the printed match length suggests. If your grid assumes a running clock but your rules say stopped, the last round will slip. Fix that before the day, not at the scorer's table.

What to put in the request

The fastest requests we get have everything below in the details field:

• gym name and street address, plus the entrance that will be open;
• date, first kickoff, last kickoff, and the time the building must be empty;
• age group and level, and whether the event is affiliated;
• number of courts and games;
• crew per game, and whether a table official is needed;
• any local modifications: running clock, no timeouts, adjusted foul rules, no slide tackles for young players;
• the on-site contact who will be in the building before the first game.

Fees

We do not print a futsal price list. Match length, crew size, table staffing, number of games per official, and travel between gyms all move the number. If your league has a published referee fee for affiliated games, the league's assignor rules govern those games. For an event you are hiring directly, the quote on your request is the number that matters.

What we will not claim

We do not list futsal leagues we officially serve, because a winter fill-in is not a league partnership. We do not invent license requirements for your competition. We do not promise that every holiday-break date is open. And we do not pretend a single official on court can also keep an accurate foul count, run the clock, and watch the substitution zone. The product is officials in your gym when the request is specific enough to assign.

Frequently asked questions