Referees, players and even Bermuda's soccer fans need to be trained in the rules of the game if standards are to improve.

That is the view of Dave Richardson, an English Football Association Licensed Referees Instructor, who is on the Island to assess the game on behalf of the Bermuda Referees' Association.

Richardson is spending two weeks officiating, watching games and training as part of a planned exchange visit between referees from England and Bermuda.

Early next year two referees from England, one a Nationwide League assistant and the other an Isthmian League official, will visit the Island and take charge of a number of games.

A few weeks later several of the Island's men in black will make the trip to England where they will officiate in matches in the Buckinghamshire area.

Richardson was thrown in at the deep end on his arrival here, officials asking him to take control of last Sunday's FA Cup tie between Ireland Rangers and Dandy Town.

"I gave a couple of rollickings which I am sure we will talk about at the RA meeting, because the cautioning system over here is slightly different to England's cautioning system," he said. "But credit to the players they tried to play football and they did."

The visit came about due to the friendship between Richardson and Island official Steve Wakeland.

"He realised the training of referees over here was nothing like we have back in England," Richardson said. "Size has a lot to do with it, Bermuda is a small island with about 36 referees, end of story.

"But some of the things he saw other referees do made him think 'there's something lacking here'."

Richardson said the problems he had witnessed so far were not insurmountable.

"It would seem to be the basics which was very much what Steve had talked about," he said. "I watched the first half of a game before I went to my one and I don't decry the referee at all. He was fairly good.

"In a couple of decisions he made he gave indirect free kicks that I was surprised about as I thought they should have warranted direct free kicks. Had the incident happened inside the penalty area I would have been interested to see what decision he would have made."

Richardson said in the same match the linesmen certainly needed a crash course on what to do.

"Assistants need a lot of help from what I saw of that game," he said. "Having said that I had two excellent guys who did very well . . . but they had a five or six minute talk from me as to what I wanted them to do in the game, which I know normally they don't have. They go out and the referee says 'usual thing lads'.

"Well, familiarity breeds contempt and this is the problem. It doesn't matter whether you are with the same guy every three or four weeks you should still give him the instructions that you want.

"The two guys that were with me both said afterwards that they learned a few things that they hadn't even really thought about."

Richardson said in a football match there were three teams - two teams of players and a team of officials.

"While I only watched the first half of one game the referee and the assistants went against each other at least three or four times," he said.

"The referee looked as though he was refereeing it with a couple of guys on the line who were going to wave the flag occasionally and 'what the hell'. Whereas my two guys and I worked as a team and worked together and this is something that I have to try and get across to them.

"But to be fair, what training have they had? They haven't had any. What horrified me was the way Steve said if some guy comes along and says 'I would like to referee' there is no training course for new referees. He pays his $30 and (they) throw him in the middle and hope for the best."

Richardson said it was crucial to school people in the rules as early as possible. "If you start picking up bad habits at the beginning they are the ones that stick with you," he said. "That is why we have to have assessors. I know they have them here but I don't know how well they have been trained.."

Richardson said the players, coaches and managers should also not be exempt from a few hours in the classroom.

"I had a bit of a laugh with one of the Dandy Town guys for handball. He kept hitting the ball up on his armpit and I kept penalising him. He thought the handball was from the elbow down and I had to explain that it was not, it is from the shoulder down," he said.

"That is just one incident on its own. It does players no harm whatsoever to learn the laws.

"I wonder how many of the teams out here have actually looked at the laws of Association Football - none of them I suspect and I would say it's exactly the same in England, at local level they haven't looked at it at all.

"(It also applies) to the people who watch. The greatest referees on earth are the spectators."

Richardson said he was not pointing the finger at anyone in particular, stressing that officials were only operating with the tools and skills afforded to them.

"I am not decrying the referees, the assistants, the players or anyone out here, but they do without a shadow of a doubt need some training. That's why I am here," he said.