The standard of officiating in the A-League has been a hot topic in football circles this season following several controversial errors.

There was one such incident in Friday night's 3-3 draw between Melbourne Victory and Brisbane, where Roar keeper Michael Theoklitos appeared to handle outside the box moments before the Queenslanders grabbed a stoppage-time equaliser.

Fowler himself was denied two blatant penalties in last weekend's 1-1 draw with North Queensland Fury.

And the former England international wrote in his weekly column in The West Australian that the A-League needs to find ways to improve its level of refereeing.

"Bringing in overseas officials might be a good way of improving the standard of refereeing in the A-League," Fowler wrote.

"People say decisions balance out over the season but it doesn't always work out that way and I'd rather referees got more things right in the first place."

Fowler continued: "I know it's not easy to attract people to become referees, who have a difficult job, so maybe it's time Australia turned to other countries for their expertise.

"I'm sure some of the best referees in Europe wouldn't mind spending the last year or so of their career in Australia.

"Apart from being a fantastic place to live, it would also give them a chance to help improve the developing A-League and pass on their experience to the referees coming through here.

"Maybe even look to young referees from the likes of England, Spain and Italy and the other top leagues to come in for a period of time and see how they do things compared to the referees we have at the moment."

Fowler added: "Last weekend, inexperienced referee Kris Griffiths-Jones made two major mistakes, which probably cost us a win. It was hard to take.

"What is even harder to swallow is that the referee will not be held accountable for his actions.

"If players have bad games, they are dropped. Some of our mistakes are punished with red cards. It should be the same for bad refereeing performances."