The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) yesterday took a giant step over the issue of professional refereeing, which has been on the agenda for a long time in Turkish football. With the contracts signed in March, Cüneyt ÇakIr, Hüseyin Göçek, BarIş Şimşek, Mete Kalkavan, Ali PalabIyIk and FIrat AydInus have officially become Turkey's first professional referees. According to a statement made by the TFF, the referees working within the federation must come to the administrative center of the TFF in Riva and train under the supervision of the Central Referee Board. The referees on contract will also provide training in courses, conferences and seminars. During their shift, the referees will contribute to preparing special content, consisting of video footage, that will be used for training referees. After a three-month pilot scheme, the other referees will be included into contractual refereeing. Contractual refereeing has been put into action as a result of work and preparation that has been made since 2012. During this period, the TFF has carried out many innovation regulations in relation to referees. The wages of referees have increased by 91 percent since 2012 and they have been given more authority in order to prevent the continual verbal attacks and assaults. The other innovations brought in by the TFF are the new six-referees system and vanishing spray. Referees in the English leagues have been professional since 2001, with the move being brought in to help improve the standard of refereeing. The current stable of referees is 79, with some 249 assistant referees across England's top four leagues. The Professional Game Match Officials Limited is run by Mike Dean, a former referee and he heads the Select Group of 18 referees that officiate the biggest matches in the country. Premier League referees receive a salary of 65,000 pounds per year and they receive around 1,000 pounds per game they officiate. The salary decreases the lower the league the game is. The system is funded by the Football League, Premier League and the FA.