The Bermuda Football Association's man responsible for referees says he is concerned about the facilities that clubs are making available for officials during football matches.

Last week a few top referees referred to the state of some grounds as deplorable and Aldwyn Savery, chairman of the BFA's Referees Committee, yesterday called on clubs to make a concerted effort to clean up their act out of fear that some officials may become discouraged and unappreciated if this continues.

"Naturally we at the BFA are quite concerned, we would like to see the referees and other officials as comfortable as possible when they take the time out to officiate at these matches," he said.

"I am quite aware that finances do not allow every club to have a first class dressing room for officials, although that should be one of the goals. But the fact remains that the rooms they provide could be made clean and tidy for the officials, each having facilities for them to wash their hands etc."

Savery, who was previously the BFA's director of referees, president of the Bermuda Referees Association and also a long-serving referee himself, reminded clubs of some additional responsibilities that they had.

He said clubs should provide drinks at half time for officials and have security people available to escort them both on and off the field of play.

"The provision of drinks during the short half-time break is important because the officials don't have sufficient time to search for drinks, and what little time they do have has to be concentrated on discussions about what occurred during the first half and what they plan for the second," he said.

"The security is primarily important. Many of the clubs continue to do a good job in this regard, but you get a few who have slackened off and we encourage them to strive to support us once again in this area.

"Certainly the BFA would like to see all of these things improved. We would work with any of these facilities in any way to assist in achieving these necessary improvements so that referees are as comfortable as possible."

Because of the shortage of officials Savery reminded clubs that they should also find people capable of joining their ranks, preferably ex-players.

He was pleased to see some come forward and involve themselves in coaching, but he believed there were others who could assist by offering themselves as referee's assistants as well.

"Of course we want to encourage people to take up the very noble art of refereeing, we still hope that clubs will see fit to nudge people our way, especially the many ex-players,'' he said.

"We need to remind people that for football to improve the standard of refereeing must improve alongside it, many countries will attest to this. If the standard of refereeing improves so does the standard of football.

That is the sort of attitude we have in the association, that is why we bring people from abroad to talks to our officials, to run seminars etc. to try to upgrade the skills of our people."