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Coventry University to examine how sports can recruit and retain young officials
University news
Wednesday 12 November 2025
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It’s often referred to as the most difficult job in sport but a study involving Coventry University is to examine the benefits of officiating to help sports organisations recruit and retain more young officials.
Across many sports there is a shortage of officials while those that are recruited often fall out of the role for a range of reasons.
While abuse of sports officials is a problem, there can be issues with the support available and too little promotion of the positive benefits people experience in the role.
Coventry University, along with The Dutch Olympic Committee, Badminton Europe, Euro Hockey, The International Federation for Sports Officials, Sport Malta, The Association Française du Corps Arbitral Multisports and the European Observatory for Sport and Employment, is taking part in a new project entitled REFS - Inspiring the Next Generation of Sport Officials in Europe.
The project, which has been funded by a €400,000 Erasmus+ grant, will seek to examine the experiences of 14 to 20-year-old sport officials across Europe. It will look into the positive aspects of sports officiating and the potential challenges to taking part, with the aim of putting together a range of outputs including a detailed research report.
It will also produce a compendium of good practice around recruitment and retention of young officials for use by sporting organisations, guidelines for the engagement of children and young people in sport officiating, a series of video clips to inspire the next generation of sport officials, and a European conference on engagement of children and young people in sport officiating.
Dr Tom Webb, Associate Professor in Applied Global Sport Management at Coventry University’s Research Centre for Resilient Business and Society (CRBS), is leading and managing the research aspect of the project.
I think it’s fair to say we do have a problem of recruiting and retaining officials across all sports. Of course, abuse of officials is a problem but there are lots of reasons young people might decide they can’t continue officiating. I ran a study funded by the UEFA Research Grant Programme involving referees in England, Italy and Spain and there were instances where officiating no longer fitted into people’s personal and professional lives, where there was a lack of progression or where there were concerns about remuneration.
There has been a lack of research into younger officials and their experiences, we need younger people to enter and stay in the profession, we need to support the next generation of officials. It’s these people who will end up becoming our Premier League, Gallagher Premiership, Betfred Super League and Wimbledon officials.
While our research will examine the challenges to young people of officiating, it will also look into the incredibly positive aspects of officiating. It provides a whole range of benefits, from improving your communication, organisation, people management, to your fitness and decision making. There are so many things you can learn.
Dr Tom Webb, Associate Professor in Applied Global Sport Management at Coventry University’s Research Centre for Resilient Business and Society (CRBS)
Find out more about the Centre for Resilient Business and Society.
