NORTH Kent Sunday Football League clubs will have to provide their own match-day referees if a radical new proposal is accepted at their annual meeting.

If it is carried, the league will implement it for the start of the 2006-07 season.

The news comes in the week that KCFA chairman and managing director Barry Bright disclosed in his annual report that for every referee that passes the examination in the county, another turns his back on the game.

The NKSL management committee decided on the action after match coverage by official referees in the competition shrunk from 98 per cent three years ago to 50 per cent last season.

Under the proposal, all clubs would have to forward a representative for basic training on part one of the laws of the game at the local Gravesend branch of the Kent Referees Association.

More than 1,600 players are registered with the Sunday League and chairman Graham East said that the decision had been taken to safeguard their welfare and to maintain standards in the competition .

Mr East, who took the chair a year ago, said: "The easiest thing would have been for this league to have sat on their hands done nothing. But we all knew that positive action was required because the figures demanded it.

"The fact that we could boast 98 per cent coverage just three years ago compared to 50 per cent last season tells its own story and cannot be ignored.

"In the past, clubs were asked to provide representatives to undergo basic first aid training. Now we’re asking them to provide representatives to undergo basic referee training to help cope with the shortage of referees.

"Clubs were warned in January that we were considering taking action so it will not come as a bolt out of the blue."

Mr East laid blame at the door of club officials and players for what has developed into a critical shortage of officials.

He said: "These days there is absolutely no respect for the referee. Young and old alike mimmick what they see in televised Premier and Football League matches. Those players think they are above the laws of the game and now so do park footballers.

"The Gravesend branch of the Kent Referees’ Association have worked overtime in attempting to overcome the refereeing shortage in the area but they face an uphill tawk."

Clubs will be asked to vote on the proposal at the league’s annual meeting which starts at 11am on Sunday, June 19 at Fleet Leisure, Nelson Road, Northfleet.