On the eve of the Football Far North Coast competitions, there is a desperate call out for more match officials and without them, the competition will be effected.

As has been reported a number of times each year, the shortage of match officials in both the senior and junior FFNC competitions is at worrying levels, while participation numbers continue to grow.

FFNC General Manager Steve Mackney has issued a letter to all clubs, highlighting the chronic shortage of match officials and the sad truth that without change, the competition will suffer.

Action by clubs, volunteers, parents, players, ex players and supporters needs to be immediate for the growth of the sport to continue.

The statement issued this week is below:

Good afternoon,

The information contained in this e-mail, is offered for the purpose of again highlighting the chronic shortage of accredited match officials. This is regretfully a situation that continues to exist annually and despite the exceptional growth in player numbers, efforts to recruit and retain match officials has failed to achieve outcomes that match the progression of the game based on other measures.

There are several reasons why recruitment and retention of match officials continues to stall and I offer a few observations to highlight various obstacles and mis-information influencing an environment that is not conducive to having more match officials in the game at the grassroots;

Being a centre referee or assistant (known by many as a liney), is a role that attracts a lot of scrutiny and often unreasonable expectations from players, team officials and spectators. Decisions made rarely appease even 50% of observers, most who have little understanding about the Laws of the Game and who generally have a vested interest in decisions made and the result of a game.

Solution; MORE people need to educated themselves about the Laws of the Game.

Players, Team Officials and Spectators are often prone to express their frustrations towards match officials when their team is not winning, with regular critical commentary directed towards the referee and assistants during (and after) a game. Curiously, most people are tolerant and understanding about the misgivings of players on their own team when they miss an open goal, make a defensive error or commit a foul.

Solution; EVERYONE needs to show more respect towards match officials.

Match Officials at the grassroots are NOT employees of Football Far North Coast. They do receive a payment for each match that they officiate, but a ruling by the Australian Tax Office (ATO) many years ago, confirmed that The payments received by referees are considered to be incidental to a pastime and not a product or incident of any employment or a reward for services rendered.19 Aug 2009

Implications; Football Far North Coast does not have an employer/employee agreement with match officials. There is zero tax withheld and there are no tax implications for any stakeholder. Payments made to match officials by FFNC (i.e. match payments) ultimately come from revenue paid by registered players, collected by each club and forwarded twice yearly to FFNC. Match Officials have some responsibilities in their role and FFNC works with each individual to adhere to reasonable activity, but ultimately each match official can choose to opt in or to opt out of being a match official.

The variances of geographical activity across this region, mean that many clubs are less likely to have appointed match officials, because there is an absence of match officials who live within the local proximity of such clubs. There is a reluctance of many match officials to travel more than say 30 minutes from their place of residence to officiate.

Football is played most Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays during the season. A player might play say 15-20 games a season, but a match official could be asked to officiate more than 100 games. It is demanding and loses its lustre after a while.

There are no 'back-up' match officials to send to games, including circumstances when illness, injury or misadventure impact individual match officials who have been appointed to fixtures, but who withdraw from those appointments.

Notwithstanding appointments made by FFNC by COB Tuesday each week, each HOME club must anticipate having an ADULT to officiate (i.e. Centre) for any competition fixture that is absent of any official appointment. This also applies where club sourced assistant referees (ordinarily required for 16's and for each for senior fixture) are required.

Football Australia mandates the procedures in place to gain accreditation as a match official. This is mainly an online process and an overview can be found via the link shown below. 

https://footballfarnorthcoast.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Procedures-for-Becoming-a-Referee-2025-2.pdf

On the eve of the 2025 pre-season competitions that commence this weekend, the call again goes out urging people to (1) Understand some of the realities of grassroots football (2) Recognise the challenges in recruitment and retention of match officials and importantly (3) To consider stepping up and becoming a match official.

As always, I welcome your enquiry and I wish everyone an enjoyable football season.

Regards,

Steve

More information and contacts are available on the FFNC Website https://footballfarnorthcoast.com.au