WESTFIELD, Mass. - It's been an on-going issue in recent years, a referee shortage leading to postponements or cancellations of youth sports games across the country.

For soccer officials like Matthew Card, the job comes with its challenges.

"I think a lot of it is down to the abuse that young officials get when they first start, because when they first start, they're new and they're not very experienced," Card said. "So when they go referee a game, they're not obviously at a high level, but the coaches and parents don't always know that and they get on the referees' back a lot."

David Barton, director of Roots Soccer League in western Massachusetts, said many new officials will leave before they complete even two years on the job because of a constant backlash from coaches and fans.

Barton also pointed to a potential financial burden for people who want to become officials.

"It's $200 to become a referee," Barton said. "The equipment and the license, and unfortunately, that just drives out some of the kids that are in college or low-income families. So we're just missing out on a huge demographic of referees that might want to do it but are just priced out of becoming an official."

Barton said the pandemic hurt officiating because many older referees retired during the hiatus from sports, citing major concerns about their health.

Card said it’s a concern because without the proper number of officials, the level of competition will suffer.

"A lot of the games just can't get played if there are no officials," Card said. "So the players, the young players are really going to miss out because you may have to postpone games if there are no officials."

Barton estimates as many as 85 percent of youth soccer games in Massachusetts are played with either too few or no qualified officials. He said his league hasn't had to cancel any games yet, but in some cases, they’ve used coaches to officiate games.

Both Barton and Card said the key to keeping trained officials in the game is cooperation from coaches and families.

"The more patient and more relaxed the parents and coaches are, the more they'll enjoy it and the more they'll still stay," Card said. "And then we can just get more and more young officials in, and we'll start building a database of young refs and go from there."