Question:
I was attending the Association Cup Quarter Finals yesterday and in the pregame to officials, our State Youth Referee Administrator instructed us that he better not catch us using colored whistles. He further elaborated that only black whistles are to be used and if he any of the referee were to use anything but BLACK whistles we would not be working for him again. I simply have two questions. One is, does USSF support such comments and secondly does the State association or in this case, SYRA has the power to instruct the referees with this sort of demands?
USSF answer (January 16, 2012):
The Federation has no requirement that whistles be of any particular color; however, the traditional color for plastic whistles used by referees is black. Your SYRA would have a hard time enforcing such a requirement for referees who use metal whistles. However, at an independently-sponsored tournament the director could insist on this.
