The deepening referee crisis has hit breaking point with matches kicking off late because officials are travelling from the ends of the island for second assignments.

Crenstant Williams, the chairman of the Bermuda Football Association referees committee, admits the situation has become “very serious” and is appealing for clubs to put forward candidates to take up the whistle.

Last Sunday’s three Premier Division games at Bernard Park, Police Field and St John’s Field were all delayed because officials had to make their way from First Division matches in Dockyard and St George’s.

During the first full weekend of top-flight matches on September 25, two games were called because of a shortage of officials.

“It’s a very serious situation,” Williams said. “We’ve lost some Level 1 referees so I’ve had to move people up to Premier Division games. On an ideal Sunday we need 30 officials to avoid doubling up, if we have a full slate of matches.

“Because we don’t have 30 qualified officials we have people coming from Malabar and St David’s travelling to St John’s, Bernard Park and Police Field, which will lead to a delay to [the start of] games. If First Division games don’t start on time it leads to more problems.

“And with Player Development League matches occurring every night during the week, it puts a strain on the limited amount of officials that we have.”

Williams, who was appointed as the BFA’s second vice-president during last week’s AGM, has reminded clubs of the dire lack of officials, just a month into the new season.

“We made a plea to the BFA congress and I’ve had a couple of former players approach me to say they’re willing to assist in certain games,” said Williams, who will speak to youngsters today at CedarBridge Academy about getting involved in officiating.

“On the first weekend games were postponed because officials were overseas, injured or working, but now a few have returned so hopefully our ranks will be filled. New officials have been given PDL games as their training ground and they’re being assessed and hopefully we can move them to games on the weekend by November or December.”

The BFA’s referees committee has been boosted by the return of respected referee Martin Wyer, who officiated Flanagan’s Onions game with Robin Hood at Goose Gosling Field last Saturday.

It was the first match Wyer has taken charge of since quitting after receiving abuse during a bad-tempered FA Cup quarter-final game between Onions and PHC Zebras at the same venue in February 2015.

Williams is delighted about the return of Wyer, a certified referee instructor and assessor in England, and hopes there is no recurrence of the abuse he has previously received from a minority of fans, some of it racial.

“Because of what happened with him, I stressed to congress that we would not be tolerating any of that,” Williams said. “He has come back to help us out.

“I’m excited to have him back as I’ve been reaching out to him for a while. He’s also going to be helping us with the younger referees coming through and doing some assessing for us along with Lyndon Raynor, Gregory Grimes, Cornell Castle, Stuart Crockwell and Kuhn Evans, which hopefully will lead to better officiating.”

Williams has also urged clubs to play their part in helping stamp out antisocial behaviour by spectators, which is contributing to the referee shortage.

“We’re doing the best we can,” Williams said.

“I made a passionate plea to congress at the AGM, for each club to send us two persons to be trained, but to date nobody has sent anyone.

“I stressed that some games may have to be postponed because we don’t have the officials. We’re using three people on a given night from Monday to Friday and then we expect them to perform on a Saturday when a lot of our same officials do under-14 and under-16 games.

“Then they go out on a Sunday to do a First Division and a Premier Division match and back on a Monday without any rest. Eventually they’re going to get burnt out.”

Williams added: “The biggest thing is that clubs take control of their fans to prevent abuse to the referees, which is stopping people from wanting to pick up a whistle or hold a flag. As a country we need to get to grips with that.”