Soccer referees across Bermuda are being warned to strive to be the best or face having to give up the whistle.

While not decrying the efforts of those already officiating, the Bermuda Football Association believes improvements in standards can be made and in a bid to achieve their aims they have formulated a three year plan.

As well launching a recruitment drive for both senior, youth and female officials the BFA will also be seeking to establish a referees academy.

By recruiting among the youth, the BFA hope to drive down the average of the men in the middle.

"We've determined that the state of refereeing in Bermuda is at a critical stage," said Gregory Grimes, chairman of the Bermuda Football Association's referees committee. "The average age is 41.8 with the majority being in excess of 40 and we are concerned. During the summer we had a real hard think about it, and we decided to rewrite the rules governing the referees as well as the role of the referees committee.

"We have found that we are short in numbers and those we have are advanced in age. We have decided that we can't go forward with piecemeal measures any more, we have to sit down and go back to the basics and put in a proper programme that can lead to progress.''

Barely a game goes by without officials being blamed, rightly or wrongly, for their decisions, but Grimes said the BFA was not going to stand idly by.

"We are dead serious. We have decided that if our referees don't meet up to the criteria that is being set then they will not be allowed to referee," he said.

"There is a lot of criticism about referees here. I think they do an admirable job, but we have to take refereeing to the next level and the only way to accomplish this is by having a cut off point."

Grimes said the plan had been put before both the Bermuda Referee's Association and the BFA's executive.

"We hope to start things off by getting the the four FIFA officials together and use them as examples for others to strive to emulate, the four being Stuart Crockwell and Lyndon Raynor, who just became a FIFA referee this year, and FIFA referee assistants Gregory Simons and Anthony Mouchette," said Grimes. "We are going to work closely with them to formulate where we want to go in soccer."

Grimes said the recruitment drive would begin later in January and there was also plans to bring in a Director of Referees.

Links have already been established with the English Football Association, with two refereeing instructors already having visited the Island.

In September another, John Baker, will be coming here to conduct a course.

"I think it's a real accomplishment that we have got him to come to here next year, afterwards we are going to develop a referee Academy," Grimes said.

"The key will be to have a pool of referee instructors and assessors so that if a club wishes information on certain laws or if we wish to put on an education seminar there will be capable people available for this purpose."