Cloud hangs over Australian football with referees still on strike weeks out from A-Leagues opener

There is a common saying that the best refereeing performance is the one nobody notices. They enforce the rules and punish unacceptable behaviour, but ultimately an official’s job is to let the game flow and not become the story.

But after months of trying to resolve their latest dispute with Football Australia, 96 of Australia’s top football referees are a big story – they have withdrawn their services indefinitely, adding their own chapter to a wider narrative about the slow implosion of the Australian game.

Now into a fourth week of strike action after their contracts expired on 31 August, there are serious concerns that the stand-off will affect next month’s start of the A-Leagues seasons.

Two weeks ago, with no Australian officials available, FA spent tens of thousands of dollars flying in referees from Singapore to take charge of Australia Cup matches. If the strike continues, the same could occur for the beginning to the A-League seasons.

Related: Players hit out at A-Leagues’ conduct over pay offer: ‘Continues to erode trust’

“The way it’s going, I’d wager there are no referees on any round one matches of the A-Leagues or Australian Championships,” Professional Football Referees Association president Evgeny Vizelman told Guardian Australia.

Multiple referees have still not been paid for officiating A-Leagues friendlies over the past month, nor for travel to pre-season seminars run by FA, as the two organisations have not yet established the financial or administrative mechanisms to do so, leaving professional referees thousands of dollars out of pocket.

At the heart of the dispute is who is responsible for administering, funding, and appointing referees in the A-Leagues. Until recently, that has fallen to FA as the national governing body and regulator of the sport. It is standard practice around the world for referees to sit outside the professional leagues they officiate in order to avoid any integrity risks.

However, earlier this year, FA reached an agreement with the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) – the club-run body set up back in 2020 to operate the A-Leagues – that created a new administrative structure for refereeing.

Under this agreement, it is understood that FA expect the APL to manage referees for their own competitions. However, the APL believes this responsibility still rests with FA.

The PFRA had not been consulted on this administrative restructure before it happened, and its members still have not seen drafts of the contracts they will be expected to sign with either organisation.

Neither the APL nor FA responded on the record to a series of detailed questions for this story about integrity risks, consultation or communication with referees, or the proposed independent referee’s body.

One of the solutions proposed by the PFRA has been the establishment of an independent body for referees, similar to set-ups in England and the USA.

While the APL is supportive of this move, sources said an FA executive announced at a recent seminar that an independent body is off the table with no explanation as to why.

“This [a league overseeing its own referees] doesn’t happen in any other league in the world,” Vizelman said. “Referees are always independent of the league. There’s no independence. There’s no integrity. There needs to be a clear separation, but this proposal muddies the waters because they’re also the ones paying you.”

Several referees, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they had not received any written correspondence from FA regarding these changes, the expiration of contracts, or about other major structural changes to referee panels for the upcoming seasons. A number of experienced referees said they had retired earlier than planned due to these changes and the lack of communication or consultation from the governing body.

“Even though FA appointed the referees and brought them to a seminar in Sydney, flew everyone in, everyone gets a few days of per-diem payments for their time off work, but they didn’t pay them because they have a deal with the APL that they haven’t sorted out yet. So we’re not paying you. Bad luck guys, sorry,” Vizelman said.

An FA spokesperson said: “Football Australia continues to work with the APL and the referees, and we remain confident that all parties can reach a sustainable resolution.”

APL CEO Steve Rosich added: “We continue to liaise with FA, and we trust the parties can work through it constructively.”

Beau Busch, CEO of the players’ union PFA, said the ongoing dispute “highlights the governance shortcomings that continue to damage the professional game”.

“A resolution is desperately required to ensure that the professional game can have its best referees back on the pitch and importantly governance and cultural reform is needed to ensure we are not here again,” Busch said.

The PFRA are now considering a Fair Work claim, as well as appealing to the federal government, the AFC, and potentially also Fifa for intervention. They are the second unionised body, alongside A-Leagues players, currently in a dispute with the APL, after negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union broke down last month.