WaiBOP Legacy Select Teams, Coaches and Referees, selected from public nominations,  from the past 25 years.

Our legacy match officials teams are recognised for outstanding service and consistent, high quality refereeing.

They are all respected figures who have made a lasting impact on the local referee community.

The WaiBOP Awards Night 2025 was held on 18th October, 2025, in Hamilton. The evening celebrated winners from across the WaiBOP leagues from 2025, as well as a number of legacy awards, celebrating 25 years of WaiBOP Football.  

The legacy selections include players, referees and coaches who have made an impact between 2000-2025.

Legacy match officials women

Barbara Turley

Barbara served football from 2001 to 2019 as a referee, referee coach, and member of both WaiBOP and NZF referees committees.

A WaiBOP Life Member and former Board member, she also led Papamoa FC as President and Life Member.

Nadia Murrihy-Browning

Nadia is a former FIFA referee and assistant referee, officiating internationally from 2013 to 2022. She is a referee assessor for New Zealand Football, runs the Youth Referee Academy in Hamilton, and remains active in community-level officiating and the Futsal Superleague.

She is currently the Chair of the New Zealand Match Officials Board.

Sarah Jones

Sarah is based in the Waikato, officiates at international level, in the A-League, and across national competitions. She is known for her professionalism and calm authority. She’s won WaiBOP Assistant Referee of the Year for multiple years.

Jacqui Stephenson

Jacqui was a FIFA assistant referee for a decade, retiring in 2017 due to injury. She moved to WaiBOP after starting out as a referee in Wellington, and has been involved officiating at local and national level as well as a referee coach and mentor.

Legacy match officials men

Brett Chibnall

A senior referee and referee coach who has served the game for more than 20 years in WaiBOP, including officiating up to NRFL Premier level.

He has led the federation’s referee appointments for 10+ seasons, assigning officials to 2,000+ games each year, and was made a WaiBOP Life Member in 2023.

Hamzi Mahagna

A committed regional referee noted for his positive influence on and off the pitch, named Personality of the Year every year for many years.
Active across senior men’s and women’s competitions, he continues to serve week in, week out.

Mark Owens

A well respected referee and long-time contributor, recognised as WaiBOP Referee of the Year in 2017 and Referee's Referee in 2018.
He supports appointments across the region as part of the referee appointments team.

Ben Norman

Ben referees both football and futsal locally. He referees futsal in the Superleague and has been a FIFA Futsal Referee since 2024. He has been WaiBOP's Futsal Referee of the Year every year since 2020..
 

Article added: Thursday 06 November 2025