from their match fees if they continue to allow ineligible players to participate in future fixtures.

The threat has come in the form of a letter from Bermuda Football Association who apparently feel that the continuing oversight by some officials is causing too many headaches for the administration once match reports are submitted.

While some referees have privately expressed their surprise at receiving the letter, Bermuda Referees Association secretary Gregory Grimes insisted it was was not a controversial matter and noted that the BFA were only asking for an existing policy to be followed.

"This policy has been in effect for some time, but the referees haven't been enforcing it. This year it has really been bad and consequently these steps had to be taken to correct it,' said Grimes.

He pointed out that it required no real effort from the referees to carefully check each player's identification card against the team sheets prior to the game. If the card of someone chosen to play had not been included then that person was ineligible.

"`It's a very simple procedure. If the referees abide by it then everything will have been resolved. The referees are supposed to make sure that only players that are registered are allowed to participate in the game,'' said Grimes.

"We have discovered this season that there have been a lot of people playing who are either not registered or have no cards whatsoever and this causes problems when the necessary paper work for the game is tabulated.'' Since the BFA have issued the warning, Grimes said that he personally hadn't heard anything negative in the form of a response from any members of the BRA.

He said it was straightforward request, one that he felt was reasonable.

Meanwhile, it doesn't look as though the referees will see their requested pay rise before Christmas.

Discussions about the pay scale came up during their annual general meeting in October when it was suggested that a meeting be held with the BFA to discuss the matter further.

A source, who didn't wish to be named, said that no meeting had been held to date and reckoned that it was unlikely that one would be called in the near future. Following the BRA's AGM their vice president, Lyndon Raynor, said that they had long been concerned about the pay structure and their own executive committee were going to meet among themselves to discuss it further. But so far not even that meeting has taken place.

"We have to consider the different grade levels and decide whether to seek an increase by an additional sum of money or request an overall percentage increase across the board,'' said Raynor at the time.

Presently the highest paid referee is a Class One official at $50 with the others paid on a scale of $40, $35 and $25.