WSL clubs approve funding boost but full-time referees delayed until 2029-30
Women’s Super League clubs agreed at the latest WSL Football board meeting to increase investment in match officials, but the transition to full-time referees has been scheduled for the 2029-30 campaign. The package will concentrate on officials’ education, analysis and physical performance while a three-year funding plan is put in place.
The extra investment responds to longstanding calls for fully professional match officials since the WSL became a full-time playing division in 2018-19 and after the top two tiers were brought under independent WSL Football in 2024. WSL and WSL 2 clubs, who are the primary shareholders of WSL Football, were briefed at an all-club meeting this month about the three-year plan to move to full-time match officials for 2029-30. The WSL has repeatedly stated its "intention" to move to having full-time officials, and the agreement at the meeting is believed to be the first time a timeline has been set.
Sources said the proposal that officials be employed by Pro Ref, the body formerly known as PGMOL, was presented as the endpoint of the three-year transition. Although no party has ruled out bringing the change forward, the 2029-30 campaign is the date that has been formally agreed for employment of full-time WSL match officials. Insiders described a mixed response from clubs when the plan was put to a vote.
One WSL club’s senior executive, who did not want to be named, told the Guardian it was "about time" that there was a specific timeframe but that they were disappointed it was three seasons away. Another senior WSL club source welcomed the commitment to funding the education and training needed to improve the quality of officiating.
At the board meeting, league officials and clubs discussed balancing the desire to have full-time officials as quickly as possible with a need to enhance standards and provisions for match officials. Many of the referees currently working in the WSL hold other full-time or part-time jobs, a factor cited in discussions about the scale and timing of professionalisation.
It is understood the new deal followed extensive discussions between WSL Football, the Foootball Association and Pro Ref. There is a seat for a WSL representative on the Pro Ref board for the first time this season, after the launch of Pro Ref this summer, giving the WSL a greater say in decision-making alongside Premier League and EFL representatives. In 2021 the FA said it had no immediate plans to introduce full-time referees to the top two divisions of English women’s football, while referees in the English men’s game became full-time professionals in 2001 across the Premier League and the EFL.
Clubs have approved the three-year funding programme that will be used to implement the agreed measures ahead of the 2029-30 season, when full-time match officials are scheduled to be employed by Pro Ref.