How to assign referees/staff to games on OpenSports (app & web guide)

Overview & Terminology

Anybody who is a member of your group can become an admin (group admin, event admin or event manager) or staff (referee or league/tournament manager).

If you want to assign group members as referees or league/tournament managers, here’s a few important considerations:

Referee vs. League/Tournament Manager

Referees can enter results for matches, approve/reject previous match results, and check-in players.
League/tournament managers can do everything a referee can do, in addition to creating, editing and deleting leagues/tournaments; moving players and teams within a league/tournament; creating schedules and canceling and rescheduling matches; and sending announcements.

Group level vs. League/tournament level vs. Match level

You can assign referees and league managers at the group level or the league/tournament level, or the match level.

Group level: a referee or league manager has all of their respective permissions for all games of all leagues/tournaments within your group
League level: a referee or league manager has all of their respective permissions for all games of the specific league/tournament

>> Note: A league manager at the group level can create, edit and delete leagues/tournaments. However, a league manager at the league level can not create new leagues/tournaments. They can only edit the league they are assigned to (they can edit all components of the league including the settings, registration dates, schedule, assigning free agents to teams, etc).

Group level

If you would like for a referee or a league/tournament manager to have access to their respective permissions for every league/tournament within your group, assign them their role at the group level (optional).

On the app

From your Group page, tap on the Members tab
You will see a list of member names, and next to their name tap on the “…”
Tap on Make Admin and an admin modal will pop up
Select which group level admin role you’d like to assign to that person

On the Web

From your Group page, click on the Settings tab
Click on Admin Roles
You will see a list of admin roles. Click “Add User” for the role you want to assign
Find the name of the group member and click Add next to their name. That’s it!

League/Tournament Level

Before you assign referees to individual games, you must assign them as referees at the “league/tournament level”.

Note 1 : At the “league/tournament level”, a referee is not automatically assigned to each individual game, BUT they still do have the ability to enter results, approve/reject match results, and check in players for ALL matches within the league/tournament. You still have to assign referees to each individual match (see section below).

On the App

To assign referee or league manager roles, go to the League page, and tap on the Admin Roles button under the Manage Season section
Tap on “Add”
Start typing the name of the person who you’d like to add in the Search by name bar. This list populates all people who are members of your group
Tap the name of the person who you’d like to select
A modal will pop up giving you the options of assigning them as a referee or a league/tournament manager. Make your selection.
Voila! Now that person is a ref or manager at the level of the league and has all of the permissions that that status permits them!

On the Web

To assign referee or league manager roles, go to the league Home page, and click on the Admin Roles button under the Manage League section
Start typing the name of the person who you’d like to add in the Search by name bar. This list populates all people who are members of your group
Click Add next to the name of the person who you’d like to select
A modal will pop up giving you the options of assigning them as a referee or a league/tournament manager. Make your selection. Click “Update”.
Click the back arrow/cancel button to get back to the league home page
Voila! Now that person is a ref or manager at the level of the league and has all of the permissions that that status permits them!

Match Level — assigning referees to games

In order for your referees to know which matches they are assigned to, you need to assign them to every individual match.

On the App

Tap on the Upcoming Match, and under the Details section, under Staff, tap on the Edit (pencil) icon
Tap on the Add button and search for the name of the person whom you’d like to assign as a ref
Note 1: The terms Referee, Assistant Referee, and Staff are interchangeable (they all have the same permissions) — choose according to whichever language you use within your organization
Note 2: Everyone you assign as a referee has to already have at least a league level referee role. You can add anybody in the group as a match referee, but if they aren’t already a league level referee or manager or group admin, they system will show a Warning modal and will ask if you want give them the league-level referee role.
Now, under the event details page, you can see a list of the staff

On the Web

From the Matches list, click on the match for which you’d like to assign a ref
From the Upcoming Match page, Staff List, in the search bar, start typing the name of the person whom you’d like to assign as a ref.
Note 1: The terms Referee, Assistant Referee, and Staff are interchangeable (they all have the same permissions) — choose according to whichever language you use within your organization
Note 2: Everyone you assign as a referee has to already have at least a league level referee role. You can add anybody in the group as a match referee, but if they aren’t already a league level referee or manager or group admin, they system will show a Warning modal and will ask if you want give them the league-level referee role.
Click Update Roles.
Now, under the event details page, you can see a list of the staff

How ref’s find matches they are assigned to

Referees can easily find which leagues/tournaments they are refereeing for, and which individual matches they are assigned to, by going to the team switcher, clicking on the Staff tab, and viewing a list of the leagues/tournaments that they have referee permissions for.

NOTE: if you want to send these instructions TO your staff/refs, you can send them this article which is written for refs.

On the App

When someone gets assigned as a referee to a match, they will receive a notification (push notification and email).
When they open the app, they can go to the Team Switcher in the Leagues/Tournaments section (at the top where it shows which team/league is currently showing)
The ref clicks on the Staff tab. If they are assigned as a referee at the League/Tournament level, that league shows up here. If they are assigned as a referee at the Group level, all leagues/tournaments within the group show up here.

Once they have selected the relevant league, to see the specific matches the referee is assigned to, they can go to the Upcoming Matches section from the league Dashboard and click on View All
Then the referee taps on the “Assigned as Staff” filter and can easily see the specific matches they are assigned to

Notice in the last screenshot that the referee does not have any permissions to edit the match. They can only check players in (through the Players tab), and input the score after the match is complete, from this page.

On the Web

When someone gets assigned as a referee to a match, they will receive a notification (push notification and email).
When they go to the OpenSports website, they can Click on their profile picture, and click on “Admin Leagues”
They will see a clean overview of the leagues/tournaments that they are a referee or a manager of, and can select a league or tournament
From the league page, the ref clicks on the Matches tab
To see the specific matches the referee is assigned to, they can click on the Filter and select Assigned As Staff, then click Done
Now the referee can easily see the specific matches they are assigned to

If you have any questions about our ref/staff features, send us an email at contact@opensports.net :-)

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