The Society for Rugby Referees in Sri Lanka (SRRSL) President Dilroy Fernando says the rugby fraternity should c onsider referees as professionals.

Responding to a statement made by Rugby Interim Committee Chairman Dr. Maiya Gunasekere, who said, at recent press briefing, that the fee charged by referees was excessive, Fernando said that referees needed money to train and maintain standards, just like professional rugby players.

"Referees need money to buy boots, travel, for special nutrition and acquire membership at a club so that they can train and be fit for matches. All this needs money and who do you think will meet these expenses if the referees are not paid," questioned Fernando in an interview with ‘The Island.’

Fernando said that all attempts should be made to make refereeing a lucrative occupation.

"At present, most of the ex-national players prefer coaching to refereeing because there is so much money involved in coaching. What people have failed to realise is that poor quality refereeing can ruin a team’s preparations. Referees need to be paid and people with rugby experience should take to refereeing because the referees’ society is short of people who have played the game at the highest level," explained Fernando.

According to Fernando the SRRSL charges the host team Rs.15,000 for an ‘A’ Division inter-club rugby match, Rs.10,000 for a top tier school match, Rs.7,500 for ‘B’ Division school rugby match and Rs.6,000 for a Division ‘C’ school rugby match.

"This fee charged per match is utilized to pay the referee, the two assistant referees, the referee coach and the fourth referee," said Fernando.

He said funds were needed to send referees overseas for training and to video matches so that the performances of referees’ could be analysed.

Fernando said that he was in the process of negotiating with a company to sponsor the SRRSL.

"Still referees will charge a fee because even if this sponsorship comes through that money will be used for the training and development programmes for referees," said Fernando.

He said that plans were being mapped out to have a website soon which will carry information on referees and their assignments.

The following is the list of matches for the upcoming week and the assignments of referees: