Sandy Roy believes hard work and commitment is paying off after referees from the Aberdeen and District Association received a number of promotions for next season.
Duncan Nicolson, a familiar face in the Breedon Highland League, has been elevated from category one development to category one performance, which means he’ll be set for more SPFL appointments next term.
Joel Kennedy has been promoted from category two to category one development and Alex Ross been promoted to category three which will see him start refereeing in the Highland League next season.
Mark Bolton, Olivia Crawford and Vladyslav Melnyk will all be category three development officials next season.
Former category one whistler Roy is the referees’ manager for the Aberdeen and District Association and is pleased with the promotions.
With Nicolson and Kennedy joining Dan McFarlane on the category one list Roy believes the north-east is well represented in the upper echelons of refereeing.
He said: “We’re delighted, it’s a reward for their efforts and it also shows the strength of our association.
“We’ve had development programmes and we feel they are starting to bear fruit.
“It’s a long way to go to get to the very top, but we have got people getting further and further up the ladder which is good.
“It would be at least nine or 10 years since we had three referees at category one level when we had Graham Beaton, Ryan Milne and Mat Northcroft.
“So it’s good to get back up towards those numbers.”
More people needed
Despite referees doing well Roy says there is still a shortage of officials and is keen for more people to pick up a whistle.
He added: “We can never have enough referees, it sometimes feels like we’ve been running to stand still.
“In the last year we’ve had something like 30 new referees and they’ve gone into juvenile football, but we’ve lost a similar number to those that are still continuing with it.
“I hope more people will come forward and join us and juveniles is the start and then you progress through the ranks to amateurs, juniors and then Highland League.
“A lot of people do it so they can put something back into the game which is a good thing.
“I’d like to see more former players come and give it a go and I’d like to think people who have enjoyed the game at various levels of football would come in and help.
“Every weekend that a juvenile game goes off because there isn’t a referee, that’s 30 players who have been denied a game which clearly isn’t a good thing.”
How to get involved
Anyone in the Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire area interested in becoming a referee is asked to email secretary Ian Bailey at secretarysfarefereeaberdeen@outlook.com to find out more.
In the Moray and Banff Association there has been little change, Highland League regular Harry Bruce remains at category two, while Douglas Ross is still one of the leading assistant referees in the country.
Meanwhile, Moray and Banff member Kevin Buchanan was one of the assistant referees for yesterday’s Scottish Junior Cup final between Darvel and Arthurlie.
Anyone in the Moray and Banff area keen on taking up refereeing is asked to contact secretary Ally Bruce at secretary.moraybanffreferee@gmail.com or mbrefereecourse@gmail.com
There has also been little movement within the North of Scotland Association, but Colin Whyte remains a category one official with the likes of Gordon Seago, Gordon Morrison, David Alexander and Stuart Randall remaining at category three level.
NOSRASecretary@gmail.com and NOSRAInstructors@gmail.com are contact details for those interested in becoming a referee in the North of Scotland region.