Courtesy: The AFC.com


People skill a must for refs

Monday, 06 February 2012

Kuala Lumpur: Referees have to keep up with the rising popularity of the futsal game by constantly updating themselves of the Laws of the Game and especially improving their ability to control players which is an important skill on the pitch.

The management and control of players were part of the focus of a three day Elite Futsal Referee Course which closed on Monday in Kuala Lumpur, part of the programme of the ongoing AFC Elite Education Seminar 2012.

AFC Referees Director Yoshimi Ogawa said the course aimed at further empowering Asia’s Elite Futsal Referees to take up duty this year.

“Futsal is fast gaining popularity as its importance is the same as that of football,” he told the-afc.com.

“Therefore, just like football referees, futsal referees have a huge responsibility to ensure the success of a match. Therefore, they must have the correct understanding of the Laws of the Game, know how to manage and control the players, for example, by knowing how to handle tense players.

“It’s not only the technicalities of the game that are important, the human aspect of the game is important as well because our referees deal with people. The human aspect is just as tough as the technical aspect. Our referees had to learn to be adept at both to excel in the middle of the pitch.”

There are three big futsal tournaments queuing up in 2012 with UAE and Kuwait hosting the AFC Futsal Championship and AFC Futsal Club Championship respectively while the FIFA World Cup is scheduled to take place on Asian soil in Bangkok later this year.

“This is a challenging year for AFC futsal referees and I am sure our referees have improved enough to face the challenge with ease,” Ogawa said while closing the course.

“This is the fifth year we have organised this kind of refresher course for our futsal referees and we can easily trace the improvement from each succeeding year. Be it in practical or theoretical sessions or written test, our standard has increased.”

One of the course participants, AFC Elite Futsal Referee Nurdin Bukuev from Kyrgyzstan feels the refresher course has ‘refreshed’ the participants.

“This is my fifth year in the course and because of the rapid evolution of futsal we get a chance to get the updated information and technique every year,” Bukuev said.

“We are grateful to AFC for arranging the top futsal instructors for this course. The instructors from the very beginning (2008 when the course first started) have been brilliant,”

A total of 20 Elite Futsal Referees attended the course conducted by FIFA and AFC instructors Perry Gautier and Matsuzaki Yasuhiro.




Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com