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Referees

Role requiredTournament organizer · Federation

Referees in Volley World have their own interface. They don’t get a login you manage, or a paper sheet to fill in and hand back. On match day they score from their own phone, either with a simple live scoreboard or, for official matches, with the full electronic score sheet (acta electrónica): captains’ signatures, time-outs and a sealed PDF at the end.

01Your referee interface

Score the match from your own phone

Every match you referee opens in a big, glove-proof scoreboard: tap the side that won the rally. The app keeps the service order, shows who serves with their photo, tells you when to change sides and sends every point to the live results the moment you tap it.

For official matches the same scoreboard becomes a full electronic score sheet: the captains read and sign the acta on your device before the first serve, time-outs are recorded, and after the last point the officials sign in order and the sealed PDF is ready to share.

How referees work

Section titled “How referees work”

Every referee has their own Volley World account. Once they referee for you, their app gets a referee area: a separate screen with the tournaments and league days they’re called up for, the clubs and federations they referee for, and their refereeing record (matches refereed, events worked, their qualification). They can switch back to the normal Volley World app at any time.

A referee only gets on a tournament or league by invitation:

  1. You invite them. Pick them from your referee pool, from your club’s members, or type in the name and email of somebody new.
  2. They accept. The invitation arrives by email with your club’s or federation’s name on it. They accept in the app, or on a web page from a computer. Somebody new creates their account on the way, with their own password.
  3. They’re on your list. Their row turns from Asked — waiting to On the list, and the event appears in their referee area.
  4. You assign them to matches. Use the Officials pool mode when you create matches, or pick the officials match by match.

Everybody you invite also joins your referee pool, whether you’re a club or a federation. You invite a referee once; after that you call them up to any event you run, season after season. Every match they referee in a closed event counts on their own profile.

3 ways to add referees to your association

Section titled “3 ways to add referees to your association”

You can invite referees from three places. They all use the same pool and the same invitation, so pick whichever is at hand.

1. From Competition Manager

Section titled “1. From Competition Manager”

This is the main place to manage the referees of a tournament.

Open in Competition Manager

Organizer · Competition ManagerOpen the tournament and switch to the Referees tab. Add official opens one dialog with three ways in.

Organizer · Competition ManagerCall up a referee from your club’s pool in one click — or invite somebody new by email. Both show as Asked — waiting.

Referee · the appAna gets an email with your club’s name on it. One tap on her phone opens the app, where she creates her account.

Referee · the appShe is on the officials list. From now on her app has a referee area with the events and matches she referees.

Organizer · Competition ManagerBack in Competition Manager her row turns green: On the list. You can now assign her to matches.

  1. Open your tournament and, under Setting up, switch to the Referees tab.
  2. Click Add official. One dialog opens with three tabs:
    • Your referees: the people in your club’s referee pool. Click Call up next to a name.
    • A club member: somebody who already has a member file at your club. Search by name, email or member number.
    • Somebody new: fill in First name, Last name, Email and, optionally, their Licence.
  3. Leave Ask them by email on. They are then listed as Asked — waiting until they confirm. Switch it off only for somebody you’ve already agreed with in person: they go straight on the list without being told.
  4. Click Call up (or Send the invitation for somebody new). The referee gets the email right away.
  5. When they accept, their row changes to On the list. Declined means they said no.
  6. (Optional) tag each official, for example R1 Certified, R2 Certified, Scorer, Line Judge, Head Referee or Trainee.

To manage the pool itself (invite referees before any event is planned, mark someone as not professional, retire someone), open Officials in Competition Manager’s left sidebar.

Open your referee pool

2. From the Federation app

Section titled “2. From the Federation app”

Federations keep one referee pool for all their competitions. It lives in Competition Manager, and the Federation app takes you straight there, already signed in.

Open the Federation app

Federation · Federation appIn the Federation app, Referees opens the federation’s officials pool in Competition Manager — already signed in.

Federation · Federation appInvite a referee with name, email and licence. Until they accept, the row says Invited — not confirmed.

Referee · the appThe referee gets an email from your federation and accepts it in the app, creating their account on the way.

Referee · the appTheir app now has a referee area. Your federation is listed under the organizations they referee for.

Federation · Federation appThe pool row turns Active. Call them up to any competition from its Referees tab.

  1. In the Federation app’s sidebar, click Referees.
  2. The dialog explains where your referees live. Click Open Competition Manager. The Officials pool of your federation opens in a new tab.
  3. Click Invite a referee and fill in First name, Last name, Email and, optionally, their Licence (for example RFEVB Nacional).
  4. Click Send the invitation. The new row says Invited — not confirmed until they accept.
  5. When the referee accepts, the row turns Active. Your federation now appears in their referee area.
  6. To put them on a competition, open it in Competition Manager and call them up from its Referees tab, as described in From Competition Manager. They’re already in your pool, under Your referees.

3. From the mobile app, during a tournament

Section titled “3. From the mobile app, during a tournament”

Standing at the courts without a computer? You can do the same from the tournament’s Admin Tool in the Volley World app.

Organizer · the appIn your tournament’s Admin Tool, tap the whistle in the top bar. The Referees sheet lists everyone on this event.

Organizer · the appAdd referee: call up somebody from your club’s list, or invite someone new by email — all without leaving the sheet.

Referee · on a computerNo app at hand? Ana opens the email on her computer and accepts on the web page, choosing her password.

Referee · on a computerThe page confirms she is on the officials list and hands her over to her phone with a QR code.

Organizer · the appOn your phone her row turns green: On the list. You can now assign her to matches.

  1. Open your tournament in the app. As its organizer, you land in the Admin Tool.
  2. Tap the whistle in the top bar. The Referees sheet lists everyone on this tournament.
  3. Tap Add referee and choose one of the three tabs: Your referees, Club member or Someone new.
  4. From your pool, tap Call up. For somebody new, fill in their name and email and tap Send invitation.
  5. The sheet stays open, so you can call up several referees in a row. Tap the back arrow to see the list: new referees show as Called up, pending, plus No account yet until they’ve created their account.
  6. When they accept, the chip turns green: On the list.

What the referee sees

Section titled “What the referee sees”
  1. The email. Subject “CV Marina Sur: referee at Torneo Express?”, with the event, date and place, and a Confirm my participation button. If they can’t make it, they tap I can’t — decline and you see Declined.
  2. The invitation screen. On the phone, the app opens on You have been invited to referee. It explains the four steps: create the account, join your club as a referee, see the assigned matches, get a referee area.
  3. The confirmation. You are on the officials list, with the event’s name, date and place.
  4. The referee area. Under Next up they find the events and published league days they’re called up for, and under You referee for the clubs and federations whose pool they’re in. They can switch between the referee area and the normal app from the menu (Referee mode) at any time.

Troubleshooting

Section titled “Troubleshooting”
The referee never got the email

Ask them to check their spam folder first. If the address was mistyped, remove the row and call them up again with the right email. Until they answer, the row keeps saying Asked — waiting (Called up, pending in the app), so you always know who hasn’t confirmed.

”No officials registered” when creating matches

The Officials pool referee mode needs at least one official on the tournament. Add officials first, or choose a team-based referee mode instead.

The referee declined

Their row says Declined. They stay in your pool, because saying no to one event doesn’t take them off your referees. Call them up again for another event, or pick someone else.

Section titled “Related”
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