Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Fukuoka: The participants of the AFC Project Future Referees Batch 2010, who were in Fukuoka, Japan, as part of an attachment to the Sanix Cup International Youth Football Tournament 2012, hailed the programme for giving them much-needed match experience.
Apart from officiating matches, 11 participants from nine Asian member associations had a chance to work closely with reputed Japan Football Association (JFA) Referee College referees and local referees from Kyushu FA during the six-day course.
“This was my first international assignment and I got an invaluable experience of dealing with international players in match situations,” Thailand Sivakorn Pu-Udom said.
Australian Peta McCallum realised how different it is to officiate a match in cold conditions. Peta’s colleague from Football Federation of Australia (FFA) Stephen Lucas said, “The high standard of tournament helped my confidence grow and now I understand how to respond appropriately to different tactics employed by the teams.”
China’s Shen Yin Hao said he was happy to be made aware of team tactics by the instructors. Ahmed Faisal of Jordan believes that the course offer huge opportunities for the participants’ professional growth while Payam Heidari of Iran and Jordan’s Ahmad Yaacob took no time to thank AFC and JFA for providing the golden opportunity to them.
While working at the 16-team tournament, Uzbekistan’s Sherzod Kasimov found awareness of the match preparations as key experience while ‘self discipline’ of referees was what Chung Him of Hong Kong learned during the course.
Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Khaled and Japanese Yusuke Araki praised the instructors for imparting invaluable knowledge on refereeing skills and personality development.
During the course, the participants were given refereeing assignments featuring practical, theoretical and feedback sessions conducted by instructors George Cumming, AFC Project Future Referee Manager, and Charles Cheung of Hong Kong and Subkhiddin Mohammed Salleh of Malaysia.