THE PRISON sentence recently handed down to a player who head-butted a woman referee in a local league match highlights why the FA has trouble retaining referees. Recruiting is difficult but the bigger problem is persuading referees to continue after their first few matches on the local park. If football is to survive, it needs a large supply of referees for local games and a reservoir of talent for the Barclaycard Premiership and Nationwide Leagues.

Love ’em or hate ’em, referees, be they men or women, are vital to the game.

With the Government emphasising the importance of the local community, sport is an important cohesive force and those parents who have finished watching their children play should, along with those no longer playing, contemplate taking up the whistle. Football, like any sport, cannot flourish if it is not properly or fairly controlled.

We also need to encourage former professional footballers to join the ranks of referees. I am frequently asked why Steve Baines is the only former professional player in recent times to have reached the Football League. The stock answer is that it would take them a season to earn what the top Premiership players earn in a week.

However, with the top referees — the Select Group — earning as much as £80,000 a year, the financial incentives now exist. Refereeing is also perceived as “lonely” but the camaraderie and support rivals that of football clubs. You only needed to hear the cheers and prolonged applause from the Select Group referees when it was announced that Mike Riley would be the English referee for the finals of the European C hampionship in Portugal next summer to realise that.

Any former professional footballer thinking of maintaining an active role in the game should contact the Professional Footballers’ Association and get them to arrange a visit to the Select Group referees’ fortnightly training meetings. I am sure that Keith Hackett, the manager, would be delighted to give them a taste of the professionalism and fulfilment that now characterises the development and training of our top officials.

Equally crucial for football’s long-term future is the recruitment of boys and girls as referees. However, in an age where success and gratification are important, the time it takes to reach the top discourages both the young and the former player. In future, the best officials must move through the system slowly enough to gain the necessary experience and confidence but not so slowly that they lose heart or feel that they will have only a few years at the top should they get there.

England needs to treat referees like players. If Wayne Rooney was old enough at 17 to play for Everton and England, then why shouldn’t a 20-year-old run the line on a Premiership match? After all, it happens in other countries. I work with some of the world’s top young referees who gain senior experience long before their English colleagues. Next week, Antony Riley, New Zealand’s top young referee, arrives at Harrow to spend his gap year coaching sport and developing his refereeing. He is 19 and has already had two seasons as an assistant referee in the NZ National League.

Similarly, South Africa’s Daniel Bennett, at 27, is one of Fifa’s ten youngest international referees and last month refereed the Cosafa Cup final between Malawi and Zimbabwe in front of 60,000 people. By contrast, there are only two Premiership referees under the age of 36 and the last English Fifa referee to control an international final was aged 45.

Among the many issues facing football, the recruitment, retention, development and protection of referees does not hit the headlines. However, if we fail in these areas, then football at all levels will suffer and ultimately die. Of that there is no doubt.

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