Capital Football has closed a $22 pay gap by delivering on its promise to introduce referee pay parity between the National Premier League men's and women's competitions.
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Referees in both the NPLM matches and NPLW will be paid the same from 2022 to close the $22 pay disparity.
Centre referees will be paid $126, and assistant referees will receive $63, for officiating in Canberra's top men's and women's competitions next year.
Capital Football chief executive Phil Brown said the move would result in more high level trained referees across both leagues.
"[It] means that all referee match fees are equal between female and male divisions in every competition delivered by Capital Football," he said.
"The referees department has been working extremely hard to increase the number of level one and two referees to ensure the highest levels of senior female and male competitions in the ACT and surrounding region have appropriately qualified and experienced match officials."
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Referee pay fees were adjusted last year, and the peak body aimed to introduce pay parity for the 2021 NPL seasons. However, the feat was not achieved.
Referees received $22 more for men's matches ($126) than NPLW games ($104) this season. Assistant referees also had a disparity, with assistant referees earning $11 more per game.
COVID-19 was blamed by the peak body for the delay, as referee training courses had to be delayed and led to a shortage of level one and two referees.
Each year up to 40 per cent of referees in the ACT, across all levels, leave the game, which this year led to a shortage of referees at NPL level on some occasions.
There were 550 referees registered across all leagues this season.
Brown said this year's figures represented an increase of five per cent in total registrations, but they looked forward to a further increase in numbers next year.
One prominent referee in the NPLM and NPLW, Delfina Dimoski, said the pay parity was a step in the right direction for increasing the quality of the competition for players and officials.
She was forced to referee four NPL matches across 24 hours in May due to a shortage caused by officials leaving the game due to abuse. The 30-year-old said she hoped the parity meant more higher trained referees to prevent it happening again.
"Monetary is not the be-all-end-all, but I think if you're selected as a panel one referee, it's now not going to be seen as, I suppose a disincentive or demotion," Dimoski said.
"Long term hopefully it's part of that package, so if we uplift the referees, we hopefully uplift the competition as well. I'm looking forward to seeing the impacts of this more broadly, and hopefully it serves the players well, and they get exposure to some good referees through this."
Isobel Cootes
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
