For anyone frustrated with the lack of referees provided for SAP games, the below information from NNSW Football might be of interest:

"There is no component in the registration fees for SAP under 9 and 10 players for match fees for official referees. This is why official referees are not appointed to these fixtures. It has always been the case that club referees, or game leaders, and not official referees, have officiated on these matches.

It is also not correct that official referees officiate on community football Mini-Roos matches from the under 8 age group upwards. Community football clubs appoint their own people as game leaders to referee Mini-Roos under 8 and 9 matches. Official referees only officiate on under 10 and 11 Mini-Roos matches, where there are enough official referees to be appointed to them"

What I find interesting here is that u10 in community football have official referees appointed to them, but not u10 SAP. My own experience of u8 community football this season is that we have had a non-parent ref for every game.

I know there are some club officials involved with SAP who contribute to these forums. I am curious whether the referee issue has been raised by clubs in SAP with NNSWF? It seems every week there seems to be some problem with refereeing. It occurs to me by NNSWF perhaps withholding a small portion of SAP fees from each club and using this to create a pool of refs everyone wins. With the SAP games all being at 'hubs' it appears logistically easy to arrange. Am I missing something?