USSF Assignment Priority Policy

Each official is expected to keep the assignments he or she accepts.

There are certain occasions where a referee should be released from a lower level assignment to officiate in a higher level competition.

To this end, the following games are listed by priority for assignment:
1) Games assigned by the Professional Referee Organization (PRO)
2) Games assigned by U.S. Soccer
3) Competitions (regional and national) assigned directly by U.S. Soccer's affiliated members
........ Includes but is not limited to:
.............. USASA
.............. US Youth Soccer
.............. US Club Soccer
4) Competitions (state level) assigned directly by U.S. Soccer's affiliated members
........ Includes but is not limited to:
.............. State Adult Associations
.............. State Youth Associations

Please note that this policy does not apply:
.............. Within 72 hours of the scheduled game time unless an emergency situation exists
.............. When a substantial financial commitment has been made for the assignment (e.g., non-refundable airline tickets)

Responsibility of officials:
A) Keep the lines of communication open about upcoming international and national and International appointments as far in advance as possible
B) Communicate the receipt of a higher priority appointment to their assignor as soon as possible
C) Report an assignor that refuses to release the official from a higher priority assignment to their State Referee Administrator and the U.S. Soccer

No match (with the exception of those listed above) has appointment priority or precedence over any other match.

Except as outlined here, referees may not turnback an accepted match in order to work a different match.

Paraphrased from the USSF Referee website. August, 27, 2014