officials approaches crisis point.

And according to the chairman of Bermuda Football Association's Referees Committee, Gregory Grimes, an appeal for clubs to help ease the problem has fallen on deaf ears.

Supporters arriving at the Southampton Oval yesterday afternoon were informed the Premier League game between Southampton Rangers and PHC was off as there was no referee or linesmen to officiate.

Stuart Crockwell had been assigned the game and had even been prepared to take control of the match without the help of assistants, but as it turned out he was called into work and could not take part anyway.

Grimes said: "There were no officials. We were a bit short on the ground through work commitments and people being away.

"Initially it was going to be the referee alone, which I personally wasn't happy with. I said to the referee that if he didn't get a full complement of people, it was entirely up to him, but he shouldn't go ahead with the game.

"It turned out that that referee had to come and work this weekend himself.'' Grimes said he would not have been happy to have given the match to a junior referee and so the decision was taken on Saturday to call the game off.

The chairman said that before the season got underway clubs across the Island had been made aware that some of their games may be hit.

"The clubs had been advised earlier in the year that this was a possibility and unfortunately this may be the first of many to come,'' he said.

Grimes said in a bid to address the problem the BFA had appealed to the clubs to come up with people prepared to run the line so that officials could be released to referee other matches. So far not one club had offered its services.

"We have given them that option, but no club has come back to us yet,'' he said. "It's very disappointing because at the end of the day they have to realise if there are no referees there is not going to be football.

"Myself and other referees are personally going to talk to people on a daily basis, trying to get people interested.

"We have a few new people who have come in since the beginning of the season and we are going to give them a course to get them up to speed, but a lot of them are merely interested in doing Saturday games.'' Grimes said while this would free up some people to cover games on a Sunday, it still didn't fully address the issue.

"Any help we can get from clubs and members of the public would be gratefully received,'' he said. "Even if we just get people that want to run the lines only -- that way we can free up other officials who can take over as referees.'' Anyone interested in training to become an official, be it as a referee or referee's assistant, should contact Bermuda Football Association on 295-2199.