As in nature, so in sport. The principles of safety in numbers and evolving by mixing with other societies lie behind a new organisation that aims to ensure that umpires and referees are not an endangered species.

The Association of Elite Sports Officials (AESO) was launched at Twickenham yesterday as an umbrella organisation that will represent full-time officials in cricket, football, rugby league and rugby union and raise standards within the sports by allowing referees and umpires to exchange ideas and techniques.

David Elleray, the former international football referee, will chair an executive board that includes Stuart Cummings and Ed Morrison from rugby league and union respectively, Chris Kelly, the England and Wales Cricket Board umpires and match operations manager, and Keith Hackett, the general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Board. Beneath them will be an advisory group of two officials from each sport.

The organisation has had one meeting, in which officials trained together and had sessions with a sports psychologist on coping with making big decisions. There are plans to meet regularly and also to visit schools and universities to promote officiating as a career option, particularly among women and ethnic minorities.

Elleray said that there was much that the sports could learn from each other, using the example of how the FA's Respect campaign had drawn on lessons from both rugby codes and cricket. “In other sports the referees and umpires are perhaps shown greater respect [than in football] but we don't believe that has to remain the same,” he said, pointing to the way in which rugby referees deal directly with the captains to defuse difficult situations as being something that football could adopt.

Elleray, a house master at Harrow school, said that he would not be in favour of putting microphones on football referees, as happens in rugby. “They tried it when I did a game at Arsenal once and hearing Tony Adams screaming at me was enough for the next 20 years,” he said.

Football has already experimented with allowing the referee to advance play for backchat, as is the case in both codes of rugby, but Howard Webb, the Premier League referee, said that although it was a positive move, the referees had been restricted by being obliged to show a yellow card for dissent first. Elleray also pointed out that a gain of ground was not as big an advantage in football as in rugby.

Steve Ganson, the rugby league referee, thought that football should adopt zero-tolerance towards abuse. “Referees are there to referee and not facilitate,” he said. “From rugby league we are keen that we don't let these epidemics [abuse and dissent] start ripping through the game. ”

Elleray added that one purpose of the association would be to act as “a technical think-tank, where ideas for experimentation can be considered by our experts from several sports”. He also wants to create a website on which AESO would clarify the rules on controversial decisions that were being discussed by fans.

Another aim will be to promote the high quality of refereeing. “We need to give people a greater appreciation of the skills these guys have got,” Morrison said. “They make split-second decisions that have a huge impact on promotion, relegation or whether a team wins a tournament. These guys are no different in terms of their skills to David Beckham bending a ball into the corner of the net.”

From parks to stadiums

Cricket Former players get fast-tracked on to the reserve list if they show suitability. Otherwise, it can take a recreational umpire ten years to progress from club cricket to becoming one of the 24 full-time county officials, with an average earning of about £35,000.

Football Qualification is through the county FAs. Passing a basic referees' course to reach level seven, if aged 16 or over, or level eight, if 14 to 15, is needed for amateur matches. Referees in the top flight, who have reached level one, earn about £70,000.

Rugby league After passing an entrance exam, the fastest-learning referees on development courses can get to the top flight within three years, but there are only six full-time referees at present.

Rugby union There are seven full-time referees. Wayne Barnes, the youngest at 29, refereed his first club match at 15, joined the national panel at 21 and was handling international matches by 2007.

Words by Patrick Kidd