Professional Referee Organization created to manage officials in North America
Congratulations to the USA and Canadian soccer federations for creating and forming the Professional Referee Organization (PRO) on 6 March 2012. Their goal is simple: to set worldwide standards in football officiating. Heading up the PRO structure is English Premier League referee Peter Walton, a veteran of nearly 200 English Premiership matches since 2003.
The 52-year-old will assume the new fulltime post of General Manager of the organization. His appointment starts on April 2 and he will be based in New York City throughout the Major League Soccer (MLS) season.
The PRO will incorporate several of the new initiatives introduced last year – a referee command center in New York, the use of video analysis, real-time evaluations of match officials and in-stadium professional match evaluators.
The PRO model allows for more financial funding toward the referee program, hiring of more experienced technical staff to educate referees, increased training opportunities for officials, additional identification and training opportunities for up-and-coming officials and increased investment toward sports science.
“We’ve always understood that the development of referees is an important aspect to the growth of the game in the United States,” said U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati. “PRO is another step toward the improvement and professionalization of our top referees. With the additional resources and funding provided by the formation of PRO, we will continue to build upon the progress we’ve already made.”
Said MLS Commissioner Don Garber: “Thanks to collaborative work with U.S. Soccer and the Canadian Soccer Association, officiating in MLS made significant strides forward in the past year. The overall level of MLS refereeing is good, and the creation of the Professional Referee Organization is the logical next stage of development. MLS and U.S. Soccer proudly welcome PRO General Manager Peter Walton, who will utilize his exceptional experience as a referee and as an administrator, along with substantial resources, to help MLS achieve its vision of setting the worldwide standard in officiating.”
U.S. Soccer and Major League Soccer (MLS) took significant steps in 2011 to create a U.S. Soccer professional referee department and relocate to New York. Seven new rookie referees were introduced to MLS last year, participating in almost 20 percent of the league’s regular season games. The use of quantitative analysis and video were used to evaluate USA referees in real time at the newly constructed referee command center in New York, helping upcoming and existing referees substantially.
Approximately 45,000 new referees enter the officiating ranks every year in the United States, and U.S. Soccer Federation will continue its efforts to put more online educational resources at their disposal. A PRO Advisory Board also will be established as Peter Walton, and other members, will meet regularly to monitor the progress being achieved by referees.
Having the political will, forethought, managerial skill and acumen, a sense of pride in officiating excellence and actively supporting match officials 100% in becoming professional full-time, as well as the business acumen to formalize the pro referee structure in such a relative short period of time is an example for all countries, not least my country, headed by the South African Football Association (SAFA).
As one learned soccer scribe was quoted succinctly in an European football magazine on the still-born South African pro referee structures, dormant for the past few years:
It is essential for the credibility of the game to keep up officiating standards, but attempts to bring in professional refereeing remains stymied by a power struggle between the South African Football Association and the PSL. SAFA control refereeing and want to keep it so. But they have no money. The PSL [ Premier Soccer League] have the money to pay salaries and set up structures but obviously want the control if they are to spend the cash. Talk of a professional [referee structure] has been going on for years now with little progress. It is time SAFA and the PSL set aside their political cat fighting and work together on this urgent matter.
Let’s hope SAFA and the Premier Soccer League (PSL), the entity that manages the top two leagues in South Africa, can get their act together to follow the USA example. Soon, before this decade is out.
WineCape's Referee Blog 
March 7, 2012 at 7:44 pm
I find it amazing that America can get this right and we can’t. And we have had the World Cup here. Is it corruption standing in the way of this?
March 8, 2012 at 9:59 am
Professionalism of referees.
Referees in most parts of the world are rank amateurs that are the centre of a circle conducting a PROFESSION turning over tens of billions of dollars each year for a varied line of professionals, for professional players, for professional coaches and technical staff, for varied professional soccer businesses.
Would you allow a GP doctor to do open heart surgery on you? 😉 This takes nothing away from good GP’s that, day in and day out, perform admirably in their field.
There are many, many benefits in gearing referees to a higher professional level, and corruption is one of the issues at the heart of it. Corruption is a cancer that can be nullified — or greatly diminished by professionlizing match officials.
Given the match-fixing referee scandals unearthed in Italy (recently 2006), South Africa (the half-hearted “Operation Dribble” in 2004), Germany (2005), China (2012), Scotland (1978), Portugal (2005), Brazil (1994, 2005), Belgium (2006), Slovakia (2006), Hungary (1988), France (1993-1994) and elsewhere, raising referee salaries to a professional level is a stimulus to earn money honestly, and diminishes the chances of referees taking money from an envelope. Good salaries will compel referees to value their profession.
Proof of this assertion? In the football world, England is the leading example wrt referee professionalism. They have a group of paid professional referees under management from a companly called the PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited), created in 2000, and so far, there is zero reported instances of match fixing in their top tier divisions.
A referee who is no longer officiating a hobby, but who is officiating professionally, will have another mind-set. If someone is not refereeing in professional football as an amateur, but as a professional with a career, he will think twice before cheating because of the possibility of losing his profession.
This quote sums it up:
”Weak souls occur in all trades, but if the [referee] salary is right and the referee knows he can’t come back if he is caught taking bribes, it would eliminate part of the temptation” — Peter Mikkelsen, former World Cup referee and FIFA-instructor.