PROFILBARU.COM

Professional Referee Organization
Founded	November 2012; 12 years ago
Headquarters	420 Fifth Avenue; 7th Floor; New York, NY 10018
Area served	United States and Canada
Key people	Nick Primavera (COO); Mark Geiger (general manager);
Website	www.proreferees.com

Professional Referee Organization (PRO) is the organization responsible for managing the referee and assistant referee program in professional soccer leagues in the United States and Canada, working alongside the United States Soccer Federation, Major League Soccer, the Canadian Soccer Association, the United Soccer League, the National Women's Soccer League, and the U.S. Open Cup.

The organization's targets are to increase the quality of officiating in U.S. and Canadian professional leagues, develop more professional-quality officials at a younger age, and produce officials who will represent the United States and Canada in FIFA competitions.^[3] The referees employed by PRO are represented by the PSRA.^[4]

History

The U.S. Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer joined forces in 2012 to create the Professional Referee Organization and the aims for PRO is to develop a higher standard of officiating at a younger age and to produce referees who can represent the United States and Canada in FIFA competitions.

Then U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati said, "We've always understood that the development of referees is an important aspect to the growth of the game in the United States. PRO is another step toward the improvement and professionalization of our top referees. With the additional resources and funding provided by the formation of PRO, we will continue to build upon the progress we've already made."^[5]

Staff

Employee	Title^[6]
Mark Geiger	General Manager
Nick Primavera	Chief Operating Officer
John Loder	Director of Finance and Accounting
Joe Fletcher	Chief Refereeing Officer
Sarah Bettison	Manager of Human Resources and Planning
Yolanda Samuel	Executive Assistant
Dax Almazan	Manager of Payroll and Accounting
Sandro Ricci	Director of Senior Match Officials
Frank Anderson	Manager of Senior Assistant Referees
Greg Barkey	Manager of Video Review
Alan Black	Director of Technical Programs
Alex Prus	Director of PRO2 Match Officials
Mark Kadlecik	PRO2 Referee Coach
Erich Simmons	PRO2 Referee Coach
Tom Beckvermit	Director of Sports Performance
Lisa Stalans	Head of Sports Medicine
John Westbrooks	Head Sports Performance Coach
Nicole Ward	Director of Operations
Amy Edwards	Manager of Tactical and Video Analysis
Leisha Alcia	Operations Coordinator
Diane Johnson	Manager of Travel

Major League Soccer awards

Season^[7]	Referee	Assistant Referee
2012	Silviu Petrescu	Ian Anderson
2013	Hilario Grajeda	Kermit Quisenberry
2014	Mark Geiger	Paul Scott
2015	Alan Kelly	Corey Parker
2016	Alan Kelly	Frank Anderson
2017	Allen Chapman	Corey Parker
2018	Alan Kelly	Joe Fletcher
2019	Allen Chapman	Brian Dunn
2020	Ismail Elfath	Kathryn Nesbitt
2021	/ Robert Sibiga	Cory Richardson
2022	Ismail Elfath	Corey Rockwell
2023	Victor Rivas	Ian McKay

USL Championship awards

Season^[8]	Referee	Assistant Referee
2019	Guido Gonzales Jr.	Ian McKay
2020	Elton Garcia	Diego Blas
2021	Matt Thompson	Mike Nickerson
2022	Mark Allatin	Kali Smith
2023	Calin Radosav	Christian Clerc

Roster

Ahead of the 2024 MLS season, these match officials were listed on the PRO rosters.

Referees^[9]

Mark Allatin
Malik Badawi
Fotis Bazakos
Serhiy Boyko
Allen Chapman
Alex Chilowicz
/ Marcos DeOliveira
Joe Dickerson
Filip Dujic
Ismail Elfath
Drew Fischer
Tim Ford
Jon Freemon
Guido Gonzales, Jr
Pierre-Luc Lauziere
Jair Marrufo
Rosendo Mendoza
Ismir Pekmic
Chris Penso
Tori Penso
Michael Radchuk
Victor Rivas
Nima Saghafi
/ Lukasz Szpala
Ramy Touchan
Ted Unkel
Rubiel Vazquez
Armando Villarreal

Assistant referees^[10]

Lyes Arfa
Kyle Atkins
Claudiu Badea
Peter Balciunas
Micheal Barwegen
Andrew Bigelow
Cameron Blanchard
Diego Blas
Chantal Boudreau
Logan Brown
Jose da Silva
Brian Dunn
Chris Elliott
Gianni Facchini
Adam Garner
Ryan Graves
Jeffrey Greeson
Jeremy Hanson
Walt Heatherly
Justin Howard
Eduardo Jeff
Jeremy Kieso
Kevin Klinger
Kevin Lock
Felisha Mariscal
Brooke Mayo
Ian McKay
Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho
Meghan Mullen
Matt Nelson
Kathryn Nesbitt
Corey Parker
Ben Pilgrim
Brian Poeschel
Cory Richardson
Corey Rockwell
Mike Rottersman
Kali Smith
Jeffrey Swartzel
Stefan Tanaka-Freundt
Nick Uranga
Chris Wattam
Eric Weisbrod
Jason White
Adam Wienckowski
Tyler Wyrostek

Video assistant referees^[11]

David Barrie
Carol Anne Chenard
Greg Dopka
Geoff Gamble
Jorge Gonzalez
Luis Guardia
Edvin Jurisevic
Alejandro Mariscal
Younes Marrakchi
Daniel Radford
José Carlos Rivero
Sorin Stoica
Kevin Stott
Kevin Terry, Jr.

Assistant video assistant referees^[12]

Jozef Batko
Jonathan Johnson
Mike Kampmeinert
Craig Lowry
Jeffrey Muschik
Rene Parra
Josh Patlak
Robert Schaap
Thomas Supple
Fabio Tovar
TJ Zablocki

International roster

As of January 2024, these PRO officials' were listed on the international roster:^[13]

Lyes Arfa
Kyle Atkins
Micheal Barwegen
Cameron Blanchard
Chantal Boudreau
Logan Brown
Allen Chapman
Carol Anne Chenard
Jose Da Silva
Filip Dujic
Ismail Elfath
Chris Elliott
Drew Fischer
Tim Ford
Ryan Graves
Edvin Jurisevic
Jeremy Kieso
Pierre-Luc Lauziere
Felisha Mariscal
Brooke Mayo
Meghan Mullen
Kathryn Nesbitt
Corey Parker
Chris Penso
Tori Penso
Cory Richardson
Victor Rivas
Corey Rockwell
Kali Smith
Stefan Tanaka-Freundt
Nick Uranga
Rubiel Vazquez
Armando Villarreal
Chris Wattam

PRO2 Roster

As of September 2024, these PRO officials were listed on the PRO2 roster: ^[14]

Referees:^[14]

Elijio Arreguin
Nabil Bensalah
Alex Billeter
Kevin Broadley
/ Karen Callado ^[15]
/ Cristian Campo Hernández^[16]
Danielle Chesky
/ Matthew Corrigan ^[17]
/ Sergii Demianchuk^[18]
Greg Dopka
Joshua Encarnacion
Ricardo Fierro
Gerald Flores
Elton Garcia
JC Griggs
Muhammad Hassan
Lorenzo Hernandez
Brad Jensen
Adam Kilpatrick
Katja Koroleva
Adorae Monroy
Ricardo Montero
/ Abdou Ndiaye
Alyssa Nichols
Elvis Osmanovic
Rebecca Pagan
Calin Radosav
Laura Rodriguez
Jeremy Scheer
Natalie Simon
Thomas Snyder
Brandon Stevis
Eric Tattersall
Shawn Tehini
Matt Thompson
Trevor Wiseman
Anya Voigt

International appointments

In December 2018, Jair Marrufo as referee, Frank Anderson and Corey Rockwell as assistant referees, and Mark Geiger as an assistant video assistant referee, were selected to oversee the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup final.^[19]

In August 2023, six PRO officials were appointed to the FIFA Women's World Cup final—three on-field and three video officials. Tori Penso was chosen to adjudicate the final, alongside assistant referees Brooke Mayo and Kathryn Nesbitt. Also chosen were Support VAR Armando Villarreal, Standby VAR Carol Anne Chenard, and Standby AVAR Drew Fischer.^[20]

References

^ "Headquarters". Professional Referee Organization.
^ "Support Staff". Professional Referee Organization.
^ "About PRO". Professional Referee Organization.
^ "About PSRA". Professional Referee Organization.
^ Avi C. (6 March 2012). "U.S. Soccer, MLS create new referee program". SBI Soccer.
^ "Support Staff".
^ "MLS Awards Roll of Honor".
^ "USL Awards Roll of Honor".
^ "Referees".
^ "Assistant Referees".
^ "Video Assistant Referees".
^ "Assistant Video Assistant Referees".
^ "FIFA International List of Match Officials".
^ ^a ^b "PRO2 Referees". PRO. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
^ "The Bear & The Ball Podcast | Cal South Soccer". Cal South. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
^ Bogert, Tom; Maurer, Pablo; Rueter, Jeff. "Why Lionel Messi's Inter Miami will open the new MLS season with replacement match officials". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
^ "Matthew Corrigan - 2015 - Men's Soccer". Mid-America Christian University. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
^ Oregonian/OregonLive, Ryan Clarke | The (26 April 2022). "Sergii Demianchuk, Ukrainian immigrant with family in war zone, will officiate PTFC for Peace match". oregonlive. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
^ "PRO officials selected to oversee FIFA Club World Cup Final". Professional Referee Organization. 21 December 2018.
^ "Tori Penso to referee 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup Final".

External links

Official website

[1] "Headquarters". Professional Referee Organization.

[2] "Support Staff". Professional Referee Organization.

[3] "About PRO". Professional Referee Organization.

[4] "About PSRA". Professional Referee Organization.

[5] Avi C. (6 March 2012). "U.S. Soccer, MLS create new referee program". SBI Soccer.

[6] "Support Staff".

[7] "MLS Awards Roll of Honor".

[8] "USL Awards Roll of Honor".

[referees-9] "Referees".

[AR-10] "Assistant Referees".

[VAR-11] "Video Assistant Referees".

[AVAR-12] "Assistant Video Assistant Referees".

[13] "FIFA International List of Match Officials".

[:0-14] "PRO2 Referees". PRO. Retrieved 18 September 2024.

[15] "The Bear & The Ball Podcast | Cal South Soccer". Cal South. Retrieved 18 September 2024.

[16] Bogert, Tom; Maurer, Pablo; Rueter, Jeff. "Why Lionel Messi's Inter Miami will open the new MLS season with replacement match officials". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 18 September 2024.

[17] "Matthew Corrigan - 2015 - Men's Soccer". Mid-America Christian University. Retrieved 18 September 2024.

[18] Oregonian/OregonLive, Ryan Clarke | The (26 April 2022). "Sergii Demianchuk, Ukrainian immigrant with family in war zone, will officiate PTFC for Peace match". oregonlive. Retrieved 18 September 2024.

[19] "PRO officials selected to oversee FIFA Club World Cup Final". Professional Referee Organization. 21 December 2018.

[20] "Tori Penso to referee 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup Final".

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PROFILBARU.COM

Professional Referee Organization

History

Staff

Major League Soccer awards

USL Championship awards