The 2024 Charity Shield will once again be in support of ‘Sock it to Sarcoma’, an independent charity based in Western Australia with their mission being to bring together researchers, clinicians, and the community to provide treatment and give support to sarcoma patients and their families. Ultimately, Sock it to Sarcoma’s vision is to make all sarcomas curable.

Capital Football will again celebrate the life of young referee Cameron Shelton who was taken from us with this disease. Shelton, who was widely loved in the Canberra Football and Futsal Community passed away last year.

Cam lived and breathed football – it was his greatest love and passion. Whether he was refereeing football or futsal in winter or summer, coordinating, and mentoring junior referees at Gungahlin United or Kanga Cup, instructing referees courses to share his passion, debating all technicalities of the laws of the games, travelling far and wide to watch, ref or coach matches, or cheering on his beloved Manchester United – he loved it unconditionally.

Cam was a member of the Capital Football Refereeing family for over a decade and gained much respect and love from his colleagues and peers. He refereed more matches than could be accurately reflected in the records, always helping out even when he wasn’t appointed.

Cam was often celebrated by his peers and Capital Football for his incredible work, including winning the David Oner Management Award in 2018, Futsal Referees Referee of the Year, FPL finals referee and as a member of the Capital Football Referees Academy class of 2018.

Cam started his refereeing career in 2010, being given special dispensation to start a year earlier than is usually allowed, at only 12 years old, due to his passion for wanting to become a referee.

In 2015, Cam stepped in as an assistant Referee Coordinator at Gungahlin United with the support of the club’s former Referees Coordinator Andrew Preston, then later took on more responsibility in this role with the support of Gavin Hopman.

As Referees Coordinator, Cam would manage appointments, ensure Referees’ skills were sharp, educate and run legendary team warmups for aspiring young referees. He supported everyone as they gained confidence in their abilities, inspired them to challenge themselves, and helped lead them to higher levels of football.

Although Cam’s primary role at Gungahlin was to either referee or develop referees, he would always find time to support the club through selling merchandise, cooking snags on the BBQ, and helping the canteen crew.

Cam loved the Kanga Cup, a weeklong youth football tournament in the middle of the harsh Canberra winter. Even in the sub-zero temperatures, driving rain, changing field allocations due to poor conditions, referees pulling out/getting injured/sleeping in, or having to make way too many bus trips around to grounds all over the city, Cam loved the opportunity to meet people from all over the world that shared his love of the game.

In the beginning, Cam participated as a referee, but then moved into coordinating venues, and then later coached in the Referee Academy. Through Kanga, Cam met and became friends with Portuguese referee Alberto Fernandes, which led to an international referee exchange between the Portuguese Association of Football Referees and Capital Football.

Cam was also a staunch supporter of futsal, often defending football’s poorer cousin in any situation. The level of competition didn’t matter to him. From junior matches at North Canberra Futsal in Lyneham, to the NSW Futsal Premier League, the F-League, and Futsal Nationals, Cam would be there with the same level of energy and enthusiasm that he was known for.

Along with the Kanga Cup, the event that held significance in Cam’s calendar was the Futsal Nationals, a yearly national tournament where referees and players from all over the country would meet, living and breathing the sport of futsal for a week.

Cam’s passion for the tournament wasn’t just to do with his love of the sport, but for the people he would meet, and spend the week within the camp.

Cam was a much-loved member of the Australian futsal refereeing community, with referees who he would call friends found in all parts of the country through this tournament and this weekend is a way of supporting a Charity close to his heart.

As Cam himself wrote shortly before his battle came to an end, “Cancer is horrible. Seeing lots of young adults have the same aggressive cancer as myself go through the same prosses hurts. Seeing some of the die from this cancer hurts even more.

“Sarcoma needs to be heard of more. It needs to be funded more. It needs to have more publicity. Ewing’s Sarcoma needs to have more time in the spotlight. It is a nasty, horrible thing that can be fixed, with more research, funding, and time in the spotlight.”

This weekend please dig deep and support Sock it to Sarcoma in memory of a hugely missed member of our community.