See How Much A Referee Is Paid To Officiate A Football Match In Europe

An average Nigerian who plays football always has a dream of one day becoming a professional footballer, if not just for the joy of playing football but for the luxurious life of a footballer with that huge pay and benefits of been a professional footballer.

But it’s not just been a footballer, am a big football fan don’t get me wrong, but there other non-competitive sports with huge pay. In my community I do ask a lot of football players if they wish to become a professional Referee, their answer will be “no” that it’s no fun being a Referee. But if look at it the other way round you will see that you can still have a good life being a Referee. Let’s be frank we all do things in life mostly because of the money.

Who is a Referee?

For the non-football fans, this is how a Referee officiates a Football match.

According to Wikipedia, a referee is a person responsible for enforcing the Laws of the Game (LOTG) during a football match. He or she has final decision or authority on all facts connected with play, and the referee is the only official on the pitch with the authority to start and stop play and impose disciplinary action against players during a match. 

How Referee got their uniform.

I know some of us will be wondering how referees were given so much power in football. If they were not given those powers a football game will be halted all the time because of so much argument and emotion flying around during an intense game.

According to Wikipedia most modern-day referees and their assistants wear a uniform consisting of a jersey, badge, shorts, and socks, not until in the 1950s it was more common for a referee to wear a blazer than a jersey. Traditionally that uniform was almost always all black unless one of the two teams was wearing a very dark jersey in which case the referee would wear another color of jersey to distinguish themself from both teams. If no not now you wouldn’t know referees passed through similar situations as most teams going for an away match.

At the 1994 World Cup finals, new jerseys were introduced that gave officials a choice of to pick from, yellow or white, and at the same time, the creation of the Premier League in England saw referees wear green jerseys. As we now in the Premier league where a Referee wears a green top and black shorts.

The number of Referees is paid.

According to Goal top-flight referees which is a professional Referee, receive a basic salary, and are paid match fees and bonuses on top.

Let’s start with the Premier League, the Referee is said to earn on an average salary of £38,500 and £42,000 based on experience, with a match fee of £1,150.

Which is £1 = 510.77naira

Then, £42,000 = 21,452,340naira

Which is their annual salary, and if they’re to be paid monthly they will be receiving 1,787,695naira per month.

Then they will be paid a match fee of £1,150 which is 587,385.5naira per weekend. And this is aside from their huge salary. So tell do you want to be a Professional Referee?

Championship referees receive the same yearly retainer but are only earn £600 per game.

In Europe, La Liga provides the highest match rate, with referees earning €6,000 a game, which works out at approximately £5,200.

France and Germany’s top-flight officials are paid just over half that figure.

Champions League referees are split into tiers depending on their experience.

So after reading this article don’t forget to follow and also have a change of mindset, not just related stuff but in our everyday lives.