Ailing president of Bermuda Referees? Association Richard Knight has made a passionate plea from his hospital bed, calling on those members intending to retire to reconsider and stick it out for another season.

Currently on a surgical ward, where he has been suffering from severe back pains, Knight also appealed for the association?s remaining members to make a full commitment to the sport this season rather than make sporadic appearances.

Concerned by news that a number of referees were considering quitting this season, the president said ?it would be a pity? if they left the sport as many still had ?a lot of football left in them.?

Despite being in hospital, Knight said he was well aware that an officiating crisis was looming. But he pointed out that this had been the trend for many years early in the season and somehow the association had always managed to meet their commitments.

This year, however, some key referees are understood to be bidding farewell to the sport.

Bermuda?s top FIFA-listed official, Stuart Crockwell, let his intentions be known at the end of last season when he announced his retirement and others said to be following in his footsteps include Cal Simons, George O?Brien, Joe Pimental, Gregory (Ribs) Simons and Leroy (Curly Joe) Wilson, although the latter has indicated he will officiate at women?s games.

?With so many leaving, it?s going to be a huge struggle for us. There are no two ways about it, but we will just have to stick it out and go with what we have,? said Knight.

?It?s sad to see them go, they have all made good contributions to football and I must admit that they all have a lot of football left in them. But I guess they have their personal reasons for getting out of the game. If I can encourage them to come back in any way then I definitely will try to do so.

?I would ask them to come back and assist in any way they want to. If they don?t want to be that involved then so be it, but anything they could contribute would be appreciated, even if it was to act as linesmen.?

While admitting that the exodus of so many active members at one time would present the association with more complications than in previous seasons, Knight said that if those remaining on the active list gave their full support rather than only making occasional appearances then the situation would not be as bad as it currently appears.

He claimed that some officials had became disgruntled over the method of assignments, believing that they were being overlooked on some occasions for the bigger matches.

?But I remain hopeful that things such as that can be worked out,? said Knight. ?We have a lot of upcoming guys such as Cornell Castle, Andre Manders, Anthony Francis, they all seem to be progressing pretty good and they can fill a couple of the voids.

?We have tried everything to recruit referees but I guess people are just not interested. I don?t know if it?s the state of football or what but we just cannot get the numbers up. What the association are talking about doing is inviting people to join up who don?t want to be referees but who just want to help out, and hopefully eventually they may change their minds.

?We don?t want to pressure people into becoming referees but we may be able to win them over after they come and get a closer look at the situation from within and maybe later on down the road they will take the next step and become referees.?

Knight pointed out that his name would be among those missing from the outset, but he remained hopeful that he would be back in action within a few weeks.

Before suffering his medical problems, Knight was slated to fly to Trinidad and Tobago last Sunday with Scott Morton to attend a mini soccer programme run by FIFA for referees and coaches.