Professional Referee Organization

Professional Referee Organization

Founded	November 2012 (2012-11)
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. The referees employed by PRO are represented by the PSRA.

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."

Staff

Employee	Title
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

For a list of recipients before PRO's creation in 2012, see MLS Referee of the Year Award.

Season	Referee	Assistant Referee
2012	Silviu Petrescu	Ian Anderson
2013	Hilario Grajeda	Kermit Quisenberry
2014	Mark Geiger	Paul Scott
2015	Alan Kelly	Corey Parker
2016		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	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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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:

• 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:

Referees:

• Elijio Arreguin
• Nabil Bensalah
• Alex Billeter
• Kevin Broadley
• / Karen Callado
• / Cristian Campo Hernández
• Danielle Chesky
• / Matthew Corrigan
• / Sergii Demianchuk
• 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.

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.

See also

• Select Group
• Professional Soccer Referees Association