DILI (19 August 2014) – FIFA Referees Committee member Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh has urged Referee Fitness Instructors to be always aware of the needs of the referees they are training so that they can develop fitness training programmes suitable for them.
Twelve participants including one woman from 10 Member Associations finished their Referee Fitness Instructor Course under the FIFA Futuro III Regional Courses series for the ASEAN region in the Malaysian capital on Monday.
“The participants should never feel they are alone in carrying out their duties,” Salleh said during the course closing. “They can always contact the FIFA instructors for assistance and guidance.
“Their main task now is to coordinate and develop a working relationship with the technical instructors. They need to identify what are the needs of the technical instructors and most importantly the referees. They should then work to devise programmes and activities tailored to suit these needs.”
Course instructor Ahmad Khalidi Supian of Malaysia, who was assisted by Toshio Utsumi from Japan, stressed on the importance of utilising the knowledge learned in the course.
“Knowing is one thing but doing is another” said Supian. “I hope all the participants will be able to perform their duties better with all the input they have gained from the course.”
Fernando Tresaco Gracia, Senior Manager of Refereeing Development at FIFA, believes the art of teaching is to teach by example, saying: “The vital concept in referee fitness is that ‘fitness is not just important but it is a must’. Fitness Instructors must know their roles and prepare the referees. Referees who are not fit should not be officiating any games.”
Goh Ah Chai, Chairman of the Football Association of Malaysia’s Referees Committee, added his comments: “I am happy with the outcome of the course and myself have learned a lot after attending most of the sessions. I’d like to urge the participants to never stop learning and to share the knowledge with the all sports-loving people in their countries. This will help develop football.”
Twenty-two-year-old Australian Rhiannon Lee Creaser, the only female participant in the course, said “I enjoyed the course and learned a lot. I’d like to thank FIFA and AFC for the course.
“We the participants have learnt how we can uplift the level of fitness and manage referee fitness. We have also received input on how to improve fitness instructors back in our own Member Associations. We all hope that we will be able to be better instructors after this course.”
