The existence of referee squares (Q5937452)

Let \(n\) be an odd integer. A referee square of order \(n\) is an \(n \times n\) array \(R\) based on the set \(S = \{1, 2,\dots, n\}\) such that: (1) each cell of \(R\) is empty or contains an unordered pair of distinct elements of \(S\); (2) each \( i \in S\) occurs precisely once in each row (except the \(i\)th) and each column (except the \(i\)th); (3) each unordered pair of distinct elements of \(S\) occurs in exactly one cell of \(R\); and (4) the main diagonal cells of \(R\) are non-empty. The authors complete earlier work by \textit{Y. S. Liaw} [Discrete Math. 178, No. 1-3, 123-135 (1998; Zbl 0897.05015)] to show that referee squares exist for all odd \(n\) except 1 and 5 (when they do not exist).