Crossword Genius

Have recourse to the match official? (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

refer

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'have recourse to' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'match official?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'official?' could be 'ref' (match official in football, say) and 'ref' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'er' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'the' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for refer that I've seen before include "Pertain; assign" , "Freer (anag.)" , "Mention/allude (to)" , "Bring up" , "guide" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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