Officials Assignation Documentation
Summary
Spordle Play provides an end-to-end solution that keeps leagues and associations in sync from the moment the game is scheduled to scoresheet completion, allowing assigners to focus on assigning officials. Assigners have the ability to view all available officials and request them to officiate for a game. Assignees will have the option to accept or deny this request, as well create their own requests for officiating specific games. Assignees have the capability to set a schedule where they can specify their availability, as well as select which associations and arenas they want to officiate for. Assigners will see the officials that are available for specific games, however they can view all officials by using different filters amongst searching.
This document provides a step-by-step walkthrough of how the Official Assignation process works through the scope of an Assigner, as well as the scope an Official.
Official
Availability Calendar
As an official, you have the capability to set your own schedule of availability. It is important to set your availability so the assigners have a more accurate representation of which officials are available.
To start the process, click the Availability tab on the bottom left of the sidebar and you will be taken to the Officiating page.
Here you will have access to a calendar where you have the ability to start building your availability. You can specify time slots for each day that you are available or not available, select which associations you would like to officiate, and choose which arenas you can regularly travel to.
Availability Settings
First, lets set up your preferred associations and arenas to officiate for. Click the SETTINGS button on the bottom right of the page to open up the availability settings.
Initially, My Assigners will default to your home association and My Arenas will be default to blank. If you do not specify an association, assigners will not be able to find you or request you to officiate a game. You will also not be able to search for upcoming games if you do not specify an association.
You can also specify which arenas you prefer to travel too. If you select an arena, you will only see games taking place in that venue. Assigners can still find and assign you to games at other arenas, however you will be flagged as unavailable to travel. If you do not select and arena, you will be available to all arenas.
For this example, we will select Manitoba Soccer as our association of choice, and we will not select any arenas for simplicity sake. Once you have made your selections, click SAVE.
Set Availability
Once your availability settings have been set, you can now start entering your availability. To do this, click on the DAY tab to select a single date, or the MULTIPLE tab to select many dates at once, located on the bottom left of the schedule.
For this example, we will select the MULTIPLE tab and then select the dates May 1st - May 7th. Once those dates are selected and highlighted in blue, click + ADD TIME on the top right.
A window will pop up where you can now allocate time slots for your availability. You can specify exactly which times you are available and which times you are unavailable. If you do not select any availability options for a date or time, an assigner will see you flagged as unavailable for games during those timetables.
For this example, we will make ourselves available from 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM for the dates we have selected. To do this, select:
I will be available:
Between 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM
You can add a note if you wish, which will be visible for assigners to see. After you have completed these steps, click ADD on the bottom right.
You can continue to add time slots to these dates by clicking the + ADD TIME button on the right, but for this example we will stick to what we just previously set. To finalize our availability for the selected dates, click the button that says SAVE FOR 7 DATES.
Copy Availability
If you have similar availability timeslots for multiple days, you can copy and paste a dates availability to multiple other dates at once. To do this, click the MULTIPLE tab and then select the date that you would like to copy.
In this example, I selected Monday, May 2nd, and I want this dates availability to be set to every Monday and Wednesday for the month of May. To do this, select each upcoming Monday and Wednesday for the rest of the month.
Once you have selected the dates, click SAVE FOR 10 DATES on the bottom right to successfully copy an availability to multiple dates.
Delete Availability
To delete an availability, click the DAY tab for 1 date or the MUTIPLE tab for many dates. Then select the date(s) you would like to delete availability from.
For this example, we will delete the availability from each Wednesday for the month of May by clicking the MULTIPLE tab and then selecting every Wednesday in the month of May.
Click the edit icon on the top right of the timeslot, and then click REMOVE.
You will now notice that the timeslot that was previously there is gone. Click SAVE FOR 5 DATES to successfully remove the availability from the selected dates.
You have now successfully managed your availability calendar. You can always go back at any time to edit, add, or remove any dates and times within the calendar to better personalize your schedule for the season.
Request to Officiate a Game
Most of the time, assigners will request an official to officiate for a game. However, an official still has the ability to search for games and request to officiate them. An official will only be able to search for games that are within their association and specified arenas, as well as where officiating requirement levels are met.
(Example. A level 1 referee wont be able to see games that require a level 2 referee and above)
To find a game, click the Games tab on the top left of the sidebar.
In here you will see all the upcoming games within your specified association and arenas. Early, we never stated a preference for any arenas, so we will see all the upcoming games available for the Manitoba Soccer association. You have the ability to search through these games using specific criteria to find the games that work best for you.
For this example, we will pick a game that takes place within the availability we set in our calendar. To help find these games, we will set the Scheduled Date to 2022-05-01, and the End Date to 2022-05-07.
We will now see 2 games that are taking place during this date range. For this example, we will choose the game on Friday May 6th, 2002. Click the Clipboard icon on the right side of the game to open of the officials assigning window.
Here you will able to view some game information, officiating roles, messages, and required officiating level. For this game, the referee and 1 linesperson slots are unassigned. These slots are available for you to request. The other linesperson slot has a Pending status, which means an assigner has request that official for this game but they have not yet accepted. If the official ends up accepting, the status will change to Confirmed.
For this example, we will request to be a referee for this game. To do this, click the Referee tab.
Here you will have access to 4 tabs: SUMMARY, SCHEDULE, HISTORY, and CONTACT.
The SUMMARY tab will contain your official qualifications, availability statuses, and the means to update your availability. Any conflicts or flags will be showcased in this section.
The SCHEDULE tab will show your availability information for the day of the selected game.
The HISTORY tab will present your history as an official, including previous games and officiating roles.
The CONTACT tab simply displays your contact information.
In the SUMMARY tab, you will notice a flag stating Available. That’s because when we created our calendar we stated that we were available during the date and time that this game is taking place. If you were not available for this game, you could still request to officiate, however it would be good practice to update your availability before hand which can be done right from this tab by clicking UPDATE AVAILABILITY.
Since we have no ineligible flags and we are available for the game, lets request to officiate for it as a referee. To do this, click the REQUEST button on the bottom right.
A confirmation request will pop up, giving you the option to write a note that the assigner will see. To finalize the request, click the REQUEST button.
After you have completed the request, an email will be sent to the assigner alerting them that someone has requested to officiate for a game. If the assigner decides that they want to assign you to the game, you will be notified via email to accept the assignment request.
Manage Assigner Game Requests
Officials will be notified via email whenever they have been requested to officiate for a game. Go to your email and open the email from Spordle Play labelled New Assignment. You will see the game information as well as the officiating role.
Click the View Assignment button to proceed in accepting the request.
You will then be brought the to games Officials section. Here you will notice it looks similar to when you were requesting to officiate for a game. The only differences are the Pending flag, and the ACCEPT and DECLINE buttons.
For this example, we will accept the assignment by clicking the ACCEPT button on the bottom right.
You will then be prompted to confirm the assignment and leave an optional note for the assigner if you wish. Click the ACCEPT button on the bottom right to complete the assignment.
You have now successfully accepted the assigners game request. You will see a confirmed flag for the game stating that you have accepted the game assignment.
Manage Games
As an official, you will be able to see all of the games that have been assigned to you or that you have requested to officiate for. You can view the details of each game, as well as check the status of your assignment.
To view them, click on the Profile tab on the left sidebar, and then click the GAMES section at the top. If you want to view only upcoming assignments, then go to MY PROFILE instead and see the Upcoming Schedule section.
You will now see all of the games that you have confirmed or the games that are pending, waiting for your response. You will not see games that you have requested to officiate for until the assigner sends the request back for you to accept. You will also not see games that you have been removed from by the assigner, however you will be notified via email.
You will notice that on the righthand side there are 3 different status indicators. Pending, Confirmed, and Declined. Lets discuss how to manage each of these statuses, which can be done by clicking the status clipboard on the right-side of each game.
Pending
When the status is pending, that means the assigner is waiting for you to respond to the request. You can either accept or decline the assignment, which then the assigner will be notified. This is dealt with the same way as in the previous section Manage Assigner Game Requests.
Confirmed
When the status is confirmed, that means you have accepted a game assignment requested by an assigner. You can decide to remove yourself from officiating the game at any time by clicking the DECLINE button on the bottom right. However, associations have the option to disable declines or limit the amount of time prior to a game that an official can decline. If this is the case, if an officials attempts to decline a game then a message will appear stating they must contact the assigner.
If you decide to decline, the assigner will be immediately notified via email and they will have the option to remove you from the assignment.
Declined
When the status is declined, that means you have declined a request from an assigner to officiate for a game. While the status is declined, you can always go back and re-accept the request until it is removed by the assigner, by clicking the ACCEPT button on the bottom right.
If you decide to accept a previously declined assignment, it will get marked as confirmed. An assigner does not need to reconfirm this because the declined status is similar to the pending status, as it will stay visible until the assignment is either accepted by the official, or removed by the assigner.
Assigner
Request an Official
The assigners main role is to assign officials to games, and with Spordle Play this can be done with ease. Assigners can search through every official, using search filters as an aid to find the most appropriate official for the game. Assigners can see information about each official at a glance to help simplify the assigning process.
To start the assigning process, we must find a game that is in need of officials. You can either go into the Schedules tab and find a game within a specific schedule, or go into the Games tab and search for a specific game. For this example, we will go straight into finding a game by clicking the Games tab on the left sidebar.
Here you will find all of the upcoming games within your association. You can search through games with specific criteria using the filters on the left-hand side. You will notice a clipboard icon on the right-hand side of each game. These will give insight to the assigner to see the status of officials for the game.
For example, if the number on the clipboard is 3, then that means 3 officiating assignments are not filled. If there is a green checkmark, that means all of the officiating roles are filled. If there is a red circle, then an official has declined your request. You can hover your mouse over the clipboard to get more information on the status.
Now that we have some information of each games officiating statuses, lets select one and proceed to assign some officials. To do this, either click the clipboard icon for the game you want to assign officials for, or click the game itself and go to Assign Officials on the right side of the page. For this example, we will use the first method by simply clicking the clipboard icon for game MB1008.
Here you will see the officiating roles that need to be filled for the game. For this game, all of the roles are unassigned. Lets assign a referee by clicking the Referee tab on the top left.
By default, the filters Unavailable and Ineligible Officials will be selected. With the current filters that I have selected, only 2 officials are showing up. Click the filter button to the right of the search bar to see all of the filters that we can apply.
As you can see I have Local officials and Unavailable officials checked off. This will only show officials that are within the region of the arena, as well as officials that are unavailable for the game. You may have to search through unavailable officials, or other filters, if there are not any available officials for a game. You can still request an official if they are not available, but remember the official has the ability to accept or deny a request.
You will always see officials that are available no matter which filters you have selected. In this example, a flag is showing us that there are suggestions. This shows assigners the officials that are available and ready for the game. Lets proceed to assign the suggested official by click TEST OFFICIAL in either the suggestion box, or the left-hand side in the search section.
Here you will have access to 4 tabs: SUMMARY, SCHEDULE, HISTORY, and CONTACT.
The SUMMARY tab will contain the officials qualifications, availability statuses, and any conflicts or flags.
The SCHEDULE tab will show the officials availability information for the day of the selected game.
The HISTORY tab will present officials history, including previous games and officiating roles.
The CONTACT tab simply displays the officials contact information.
As an assigner, you can utilize all of this information that is presented to assist your decision of assigning the selected official. In this example, Test Official is flagged as Ready to officiate the game, and Available during the time of the game. So lets assign them to this game. Click the ASSIGN button on the bottom right to send the request.
Once the request is sent, the official will receive a notification via email stating that they have been requested to officiate for a game. Until they respond, they will be flagged as Pending. If the official declines the request, they will be flagged as Declined. To continue assigning another referee you must remove the declined official from the referee slot. If the official accepts the request, they will be flagged as Confirmed and that officiating role has been successfully filled.
As an assigner, you can always REMOVE an official, or SWITCH an officials role at any time. An official can also decline the officiating assignment at any time, even if they have already accepted it.
Manage Official Game Requests
As an assigner, it is your responsibility to assign officials to organizations games. Officials have the ability to request to officiate for specific games. Assigners will be notified of these requests via email, where they can then decide to if they want assign the official or not.
To view an officials game request, open your email where you will see an Assigning Updates email from Spordle Play. If you are an assigner for multiple associations, all assignments will be aggregated into the same email and grouped by association. Open the email and you will see who has requested to officiate as well as the role they have requested to officiate for. Next to the will be the game they requested and its information.
Click on the game link, which in this example is MB1010, and you will be redirected to the games official assigning page.
Now click on the Referee tab, and you will notice a section called Suggestions that states the name of the official who is suggested. Click on the suggested official, which in this example is Test Official.
This is where the assigner can view the officials Summary, Schedule, History, and Contact Information tabs to obtain the information they need before making their decision. In the Summary tab you will see a few flags. The official has requested to referee for this game, as well as the official is available during the time of game. Other flags may appear stating a conflict between the official and the game, however if the official has requested this game then that is a good indicator that there will be no conflict.
In this example, we will accept the officials request to referee for the game. To do this, click the Assign button on the bottom right.
Once you have assigned the official to the game, the official must finalize the process by accepting the request. Even though the official had previously requested to officiate for the game, it will not be completed until the official accepts the assignation.