This study aimed to identify the cues upon which athletes rely when developing their expectations with regard to the competence of sports officials and to examine the sources of information, which are given priority in different kinds of sport (i.e. team, racquet and fighting sports). A questionnaire - the Athlete Perception of Sports Officials Questionnaire (APSO-Q) - was developed in which athletes (N=472) were asked to indicate the influence of 32 cues on their impressions of sports officials. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) yielded a four-factor model (i.e. static cues, psychological, communicational and performance cues). Athletes mostly rely on psychological and personal communication attributes when evaluating officiating competence. Moreover, team players perceived that static cues were more influential when forming their expectations of sports officials than racquet players and fighting contestants. Such findings may have implications for athlete-official relationships and training of sports officials.