Clarification and Guidelines from FUTURO III Nepal

I had the great opportunity of meeting Neale Barry (neale.barry@TheFA.com) FA Head of Refereeing and Member of IFAB at the FUTURO III Refereeing Course in Nepal. All participants were given the clarification on the ammendment to the Laws of the Game 2010 and its implementation. I took the opportunity to enhance some understanding on the Laws of the Game and its Guidelines. I hope the following will be of use to all referees in Maldives and elsewhere:

1. Field of Play - The goals MUST be of the shape mentioned as certain manufacturer wants to make their own interpretation of this laws when the laws cited as "the goals may..." thus other shape is allowed. In this ammenment, only the specificallu mentioned shape is allowed.

2. Penalty Kicks - Feinting is in the run-up to take a penalty kick to confuse opponents is permitted as part of football. However, feinting to kick the ball once he has completed his run-up si considered an infringement and is an act of unsporting behavior and shall be cautioned. Guidelines on decision and restart are as in the book.

3. Players of same team collided - play shall be stopped for treatment on the field as it will be unfair if they are taken off the field of play. This is the same if the goalkeeper or the goalkeeper with an opponent is down for injury.

4. Stretcher bearers will only enter with the permission of the referee on the request of the doctor. One in, the players must leave on the stretcher. He will be cautioned if he does not get on to the stretcher. Otherwise, he will leave with the doctor when no stretcher is bought in.

5. Fourth Official assist the referee to control the match but the referee retains the authority to decide on all points connected of the play.

Other Clarification:

6. Drop ball as a restart when play is stopped for an injury. No whistle is needed when the referee is dropping the ball. No whistle is needed also for throw in, free kicks, corner kicks or substitution unless it has been held temporary to attend to an injury, caution, sent off or substitution.

7. Undershorts, if worn must be of same main color of the shorts. Tights, if worn may not be of the same color of the shorts. Law 4 does mention on the use of tights. (Please refer side-bar of this blog for clarification).

FUTSAL Referees Course in Hithadhoo

Feinting in Penalty Kicks

Feinting in the run-up to take a penalty kick to confuse an opponent is permitted as part of football. However, feinting to kick the ball once he has completed his run-up is considered an infringement in Law 14 and an act of unsporting behavior for which the player must be cautioned.

Tiny Hearts of Maldives Charity Match

Check out Pictures from Mauroof Khaleel's Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4304129&id=773834588&ref=notif#!/album.php?aid=22680&id=100000484401351&ref=mf

FUTSAL REFEREES BASIC COURSE 2010

Football Association of Maldives is having another basic course for Futsal Referees to increase the number of qualified referees in Male. The course started on the 28th June and ends on the 3rd July 2010.

Venue for the course are:

0600 - 0715 - Henviru Mini Park

CUP of NATION Futsal Pitch

1600 - 1730 - FAM House

2030 - 2130 - FAM House

Accountability and Sanctions

To erred is human. This includes a referee making split-seconds decisions based on what he viewed and the instant interpretation of the mind and the quick reaction of the hand and whistle. Making mistakes in a match is acceptable in the view of refereeing, mistakes made by referees in the match often make the match more interesting and dramatic. But making mistake that changed the result of the match is unacceptable and thus action taken by rating the performance as poor should be well accepted by the referee concerned.
Often a referee may have a very good performance throughout the match but due to fatigue, carelessness or complacency in the dying minutes, a mistakes that overturned the result erased the good performance prior to it. As professional or acting as a professional, a referee should owned up to his mistake and apologise for his error in his report although it will not change the result of the match. This is the sporting spirit or the character of a gentleman that he possessed. Being egoistic (as some maybe), arrogant is quite often seen among some of the referees. Not accepting or wanting to accept one's error or advise given are the outcome. More often, by not accepting or admitting a minor error or mistake may lead to having to facing a tremendous terror in a match with confrontation, bad yelling, filthy swearing and even aggression from players, officials or even the spectators.
On the role of administrator, assessing the referee's performance is part of development and taking necessary action to check on the continual improvement of the referees and to enhance the overall referees' performance or others. Referees with good performance will definitely be given more matches to handle, the less confident or competent ones be given the less pressured matches and those making unacceptable be put to rest for awhile, placed in the lower division or easier matches to regain his confidence and then later after proper guidance and counseling to be put back into the mainstream.
Accepting one's mistake is accountability and should be opened to sanctions taken by the authority. It takes years to make a good referee but it may take only a second to be a bad one. Of course the authority concern will not kill or take away a referee because of a mistake although it jeopardise the performance of the team and also the bread of the players and coaches. Through the sanction process mentioned above and with the cooperation of the referees, the development process will grow and God's willing the standards of refereeing and Dhivehi football will rise.
Read this:
http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/news/source-u-s-slovenia-ref-gets-poor-rating--fbintl_ro-referee061910.html

http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/news/refs-must-face-the-music-for-bad-calls--fbintl_ro-referees062010.html

http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/news/fifa-drops-referee-after-dropped-call--fbintl_ro-fifaref062110.html

Untested, Tested and Certified Okay.

Some of the referees were not tested or given the chance to referee and to show their true potential in the past. Base on feedback, they were not given the chance thus their potential stays undisclosed. Everyone should be given a break. There is always the first break or appearance. Jittery and inconsistency in decisions is due to the lack of experience. Through matches after matches, they will definitely be groomed into better referees and eventually meet the satisfactions of the customers (the players, coaches, team officials and FAM).

This the Referees Department took the brave and drastic step in trying out the youngsters or junior referees in the First and Second Division matches. The time came when some of the senior referees were on leave, injury and other reasons. This left the department in despair and with the help of these junior referees, they met the expectation and proved the criticism wrong. There may be some hiccups but eventually they lived up to the expectation and satisfaction of the department and also assessors. This, we also need to thank all the coaches and team officials for standing behind FAM's effort by absorbing some of the pressure. At least for the moment these juniors have done a good job for the moment as there were no big mistake that changes the result of the matches and we hope that they will be able to handle the pressure of higher level matches. These junior referees mentioned are Ahmed Aslam, Ahmed Afsah, Ismail Izhaan, Shifan Abdul Raheem and Afeef Abdul Samad. They will be instrumental when some of the senior referees are away for international appontment or other matches. A few more have been put as Assistant Referees and will eventually be tested in the Third Division matches. They are Mohamed Mushil, Ibrahim Abdul Wahid, Zaeem Ali, Jaufar Abdul Rasheed, Ihusan Abdul Raheem, Mohamd Ali, Mohamed Fawwaz, Adam Faxeel and others.

A Football Physical Fitness will be held on the 2nd July 2010 at 0600 hours at the Athletic Track to ensure the referees continue to be in good physical condition to handle the matches that will definitely be higher and higher in tension and expectation. So their tip top performance is very much needed.