Last week, Carmen King, referee development officer for Soccer Nova Scotia was quoted as
saying there are around 250 experienced soccer referees available in the province this summer, compared to the normal 400.
When asked if this sort of drop is happening locally, Geoff Spencer, assignor for Antigonish Celtics Soccer said they have around the same number of registered individuals in Antigonish as they have over the last couple of seasons, though they are down about 50 per cent compared to 2019.
Last summer, with about 50 per cent of the regular soccer schedule, Spencer said the level of competition just about matched the availability of local referees, after almost no competitive soccer in 2020.
Provincially, Spencer said there has been some effort by a referee development committee to create more opportunities, with clinics happening in the winter and early spring. With that said, he said the uptake of the training isn’t happening at the same rate of drop-out. The general dropout rate of officials, Spencer said, is about 25 per cent, which he said they can generally keep up with. As competition ceased, there was considerably less interest shown by officials in returning.
So far, they’ve had a handful of games locally, and Spencer said it has been a challenge to fill those assignments.