Courtesy: The FA.com


Paralympic pride

Tuesday, 12 June, 2012

Paralympic joy for English officials

Back in early February 2010, The FA and IBSA jointly hosted a Blind Futsal level 2 course for ten English referees, with a view to some of those attending being eligible to officiate in the National Blind Futsal League and for a select few to gain enough experience to potentially be selected for two huge, home based international blind Futsal tournaments, namely the IBSA World Championships 2010 and the Paralympics in 2012.

A total of six officials were selected for the World Championships which took place in Hereford back in 2010 and The FA has continued to support the development of blind Futsal match officials and has developed a pool of 15 referees, who regularly officiate within the National Blind Futsal League.

This select few have now been selected as National Technical Officials for the Paralympic Games, Blind five-a-side football competition, after impressing with their performances in the National League.

Paul Leversuch (Derbyshire FA), David Bryant (Somerset FA), Perry Gascoine (Hertfordshire FA), Jon Wilding (Shropshire FA), Stuart Winton (Shropshire FA and Dave Weston (Herefordshire FA) will arrive in the Paralympic Village in advance of the Opening Ceremony on 29 August, to prepare for a once in a life time opportunity of officiating in the Paralympic Games on home soil.

All of the referees have a background in mainstream football in addition to Blind Futsal and will be hoping to build upon the experience they gathering whilst officiating at the 2010 IBSA World Championships in Hereford, whilst for Jon, Stuart and Dave it will be their first taste of international competition.

The Blind competition commences on 31 August and will see Great Britain compete against Spain, Argentina, Iran, Brazil, China, France and Turkey.

Meanwhile, two Football League referees are amongst the names who will appear at the Paralympic Games

At the start of last season, The FA launched a programme to train match officials to officiate in Cerebral Palsy football. The programme aimed to identify and train a pool of match officials, for whom involvement in the London Paralympic games would be a possibility.

After sifting through over 150 applications, a total of 25 officials were accepted onto the training programme where they attended a training seminar in November 2011 to learn about the differences between CP and mainstream football. Since then they have spent one Saturday a month travelling the country, officiating in the National Cerebral Palsy Football League which comprises eight Regional Cerebral Palsy Centre of Excellences, with separate sections for adult and U16 males.

Possibility has now turned into reality for eight match officials, who have been selected as National Technical Officials for the Paralympic Games, Cerebral Palsy seven-a-side football competition, after impressing with their performances in the National League.

David Davies (Staffordshire FA), Garry Polkey (Cheshire FA), Scott Henry (Cumberland FA), Alex Kirkley (Manchester FA), Tom Nield (Norfolk FA), Hayley Ives (Bedfordshire FA), Kevin Wright (Huntingdonshire FA) and Keith Stroud (Hampshire FA) will also arrive in the Paralympic Village in August.

The Cerebral Palsy competition commences on 1st September and will see Great Britain compete against Russia, Iran, Ukraine, Brazil, The Netherlands, Argentina and USA.

The Paralympic Games represent a once in a lifetime opportunity for our country, our athletes and now, eight of our referees.




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