Ben Wilson
Ben Wilson was inducted into the Capital Football Hall of Fame in 2011 after a long and successful career as one of Australia’s top match officials.
Ben Wilson began officiating at the age of 15 and his first professional match came as a National Soccer League assistant referee in 1996.
A FIFA Assistant Referee from 2000 to 2011, Wilson officiated in over 200 NSL and Hyundai A-League matches, including five Hyundai A-League Grand Finals as well as FIFA & AFC tournaments including the 2006 FIFA World Cup, 2011 AFC Asian Cup, and 2009 AFC Champions League Final.
Ben was on the FIFA Assistant Referees’ panel for 12 consecutive seasons. Some of the highlights of his career include being an assistant referee at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, including games between Tunisia v Saudi Arabia, Iran v Angola, Brazil v France.
In 2019, Ben Wilson stood down from his position as FFA Director of Referees after seven years in the role, in which time he was instrumental in implementing many refereeing initiatives within the Hyundai A-League, Westfield W-League and football in Australia.
Wilson’s achievements include the employment of full-time referees in the Hyundai A-League, being the first domestic football competition in the world to implement Video Assistant Referees (VAR), and working with IFAB to allow referees to issues yellow and red cards to team officials to improve respect towards match officials.
