This season tipped off without any of the referees from last season. In those early weeks, officiating looked unsettled at times as the league’s opening games tested a completely new group.
Early reported explanations for those absences focused on referees being uncertain about officiating in an unsanctioned league. But referees remained absent after SLB was granted recognition by FIBA.
Referees from last season’s pool have slowly reappeared month by month, changing the make-up of officiating crews as the year has gone on. There has been no public explanation for the pattern of those returns, or for why not all of last season’s referees have reappeared.
What can be observed is how the group of referees working SLB games changed over the course of the season. Officiating is only one part of a wider public conversation about standards, discipline and transparency in the league, but it is one that can be tracked.
A Slow Trickle Back
Using FIBA stats from this season and last season, it is possible to track referee appearances and show how many referees from the 2024/25 season first appeared this season, month by month.
| Month | Returning Referees |
|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 1 |
| Oct 2025 | 1 |
| Nov 2025 | 0 |
| Dec 2025 | 1 |
| Jan 2026 | 1 |
| Feb 2026 | 6 |
| Mar 2026 | 3 |
| Apr 2026 | 7 |
One returning referee first appeared during the second weekend of the season and another followed at the start of October. After that, it was a long wait until December for another name to appear.
One more arrived at the end of January, then something shifted. Three referees returned on a single day in February, with three more appearing later that month.
Three more appeared in March, with another seven throughout April. Heading into the Play-offs, 20 of the 27 referees who worked last season, excluding the Canadian referees who were used to temporarily cover Sheffield games, have returned.
Into More of the Schedule
The table below shows the share of 2025/26 games each month that included at least one referee who had also worked in 2024/25.
| Month | % of Games With at Least One Referee From Last Season |
|---|---|
| Sep 2025 | 8.3% |
| Oct 2025 | 27.8% |
| Nov 2025 | 33.3% |
| Dec 2025 | 40.0% |
| Jan 2026 | 50.0% |
| Feb 2026 | 73.7% |
| Mar 2026 | 77.3% |
| Apr 2026 | 86.2% |
In September, only 8.3 per cent of games included at least one referee from the previous season. That figure then rose steadily, reaching half of games in January. In February, it jumped to 73.7 per cent, rose again to 77.3 per cent in March, and reached 86.2 per cent in the final month of the Championship.
The Championship began with a total break from last season’s refereeing pool. It ended with at least one referee from last season present in the vast majority of games.
Late-season crews have not simply been reset to last year’s version. Instead, they have become a blend of referees who began this season in the league and referees from last season.
More Settled, Not Solved
SLB officiating appears to be moving towards more stable footing. Not by recreating last year’s pool, but by building a broader one: returning experience alongside new referees who have now spent a season learning at this level.
Not every issue around officiating has been resolved, but the league is in a stronger place now than it was when the season began.
As the Play-offs begin, the hope is that the biggest games of the season are remembered for the basketball, not for the officiating.
