Mr Mark Shield

Mark Shield has been a standout official in the ‘world game’ not just in Australia but on the world scene, twice officiating at the FIFA World Cup in Japan/South Korea in 2002 and in Germany in 2006. A third World Cup would have been a formality had he not put family ahead of football and retired in October 2008.

In a career that spanned almost 20 years, he was among Australia’s leading referees for a decade, was voted National Referee of the Year five times and refereed the national competition grand final five years in a row after being the youngest person elevated to the senior panel at 22. He was a multiple winner of the Oceania Confederation’s Referee of the Year and was voted Queensland Official of the Year in 2007, and impressed across the globe as he officiated at the FIFA U19 and U21 World Cups.