The Bermuda Football Association Referees Committee has warned the lack of officials on island has reached a “critical stage”.

Despite being less than a week into the new domestic season, dwindling numbers of match officials have already had an impact on fixtures with last Sunday’s First Division clash between St David’s and Paget being postponed after the Premier Division encounter between Boulevard and St George’s was switched from the opening weekend to Monday.

Those late fixture changes are likely to be repeated throughout the campaign if something is not done to address the issue, according to one of Bermuda’s most experienced officals.

“The situation is at a critical stage,” said Crenstant Williams, chairman of the referees committee, who was speaking at the recent BFA congress meeting. “It’s a situation where we may have referees for matches but no assistant referees available.

“The committee, along with the Bermuda Referees Association, will continue its recruitment drive to encourage persons to sign up and be trained as match officials.”

A shortage of referees has long been an issue, with some opting to give up the whistle and flag due to abuse suffered from players, staff and fans alike.

Williams warned that issue that needs to be tackled with four of the dwindling number of trained officials available on the island being aged just 15 years old.

“We don’t have enough referees and so we need to protect the ones that we do have,” he said. “Four of our officials are15 years old and tt is vitally important that each affiliate does their part to encourage rather than discourage our officials.

“We plea for each club to send two representatives for referee training and we need to collectively address the abuse of match officials throughout all leagues in the BFA and adopt a stance of zero tolerance.”

While issues have continued to persist locally, Bermuda’s officials have been making their mark internationally. Earlier this year, the committee received official communication from Fifa that three of the island’s assistant referees, Natasha Trott, Stefan Maybury and Clinton Hayward, had been ratified for the Fifa list.

“The committee is cautiously optimistic that we will have more persons on the Fifa list in 2023,” said Williams, who while delighted with the news, reiterated the problems facing the domestic campaign.

“The ultimate goal is to have a team of match officials, inclusive of a referee, to represent Bermuda. Refereeing in Bermuda is taking off globally but we do not have adequate match officials to cover our local leagues. We require persons to be trained as match officials for the upcoming season.”