Shortage needs addressed says ref official

REFEREE representative Barry Devenney believes postponed fixtures are likely to become the norm due to a shortage of referees.

Last weekend four reserve games in the Fermanagh and Western League were postponed as indeed were a number of other fixtures across the country.

In recent seasons there had been numerous warnings that refereeing resources were being stretched to limit and last weekend that came home to roost.

This season the Irish FA introduced a rule that if no qualified official was available the game couldn’t taken place.  The governing body has called a meeting of all four divisional refereeing bodies next week to discuss the matter.

Devenney, the secretary of the Fermanagh and Western RA, said the lack of match officials is something that needed addressed as a matter of urgency.

He said there was a number of reasons for the shortage.

“In many respects it’s a bit of a perfect storm, everything seems to have hit refereeing at the one time.” he said.

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