Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Kuala Lumpur: Eleven young referees began their two-year AFC Project Future Referees programme on Sunday with the hopes of becoming the future’s top refereeing proponents in Asia and also the world.
The six-day First Development Course kicked off in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday for the 11 referees, who had successful passed the Selection Course in November last year where 18 hopefuls took part.
“First of all, I’d like to congratulate you for being selected to join this coveted two-year programme of the AFC,” said AFC Referees Director Yoshimi Ogawa during the course’s opening ceremony.
“This is your passport to great refereeing future possibility, however, you have to decide where your final destination in refereeing will be. We can’t decide where the destination will be. We can only provide you with the general direction and support in your journey.
“There’s no guarantee that you will be successful, but the most important thing is that you must set your targets because the AFC’s expectations are very high and you need to work hard to fulfill these expectations.
“You also need to bring other elements such as your personality and passion. Passion will help you go through the hardship and challenges in your refereeing journey. And don’t forget to appreciate all the contributions people have given you to reach this stage of your early career.”
The role of the referee, match incident analysis, consistency in applying Law 12 (fouls and misconducts), positioning and movement, match control and dealing with problems are some of the topics covered in the basic course.
The 11 participating referees are Alexander George King (Australia), Md Nazmul Huda (Bangladesh), Bao Meng-xiao, Huang Xiang, Jin Jing-yuan (China), Fong Kwok Hong (Hong Kong), Venkatesh Ramachandran (India), Takeshi Asada (Japan), Zakri Nasser Hashil Al-Hinaai (Oman), Abdul Rahman Ali H.A. Al-Marri (Qatar) and Omar Mohamed Ahmed Hassan Al-Ali (UAE).
George Cumming (Scotland), Noboru Ishiyama (Japan) and Masoud Moradi (Iran) are their instructors.