May 7, 2002 - If you have recently received a mailing from US Soccer with your 2002 referee certification card, you know that you did not receive the Laws of the Game (LOTG) booklet as you (or we) had expected. This is the result of a misunderstanding about how materials were to be distributed in our state. US Soccer claimes to have shipped LOTG to Massachusetts for us to distribute at our recertification clinics in the fall and winter. To the best of anyone's knowledge, these books were never received. Obviously, books were not available at the recertification clinics.
This situation is terribly unfortunate. Steps have been taken to insure that this does not happen again. For 2003, Massachusetts will receive LOTG from US Soccer in bulk and will distribute them at the recertification clinics beginning in the fall. In this way, referees will receive their LOTG booklet earlier than the spring certification mailing from US Soccer next year.
With the LOTG for 2003 due out in June, and with the small number of changes to the Laws in 2002, it does not seem to make sense to incur the expense for ordering and distributing 2002 books at this point in the soccer year. The 2002 Laws of the Game are available for reference and downloading through the FIFA website or through the US Soccer website (Click on Referees menu, Laws of the Game, FIFA Laws of the Game).
Sorry for the inconvenience of this. If you need additional information, please contact SRA Richard Frongillo.