ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some important and emerging issues in the real of sport and their implications for the future recruitment, training, development, and advancement of the next generation of sport officials. The professionalization of youth sport was first brought to light some 40 years ago when Jonathon Brower, an associate professor of sociology at California State University – Fullerton, wrote about the growing seriousness and importance ascribed to youth sport. Participation in sport is now about much more than the experience itself or being physically fit or building character. Technology is omnipresent around the world and within sport in the 21st century, yet it is unlikely that the average individual has a fulsome idea how pervasive it is currently or how large a role it will play in the future of sport and sport officiating.
