FAMOA arrives in Plymouth

The FA, along with county Associations Devon and Cornwall, recently joined forces to host this year’s FAMOA event, held at Plymouth Argyle and open to all referees, assessors, tutors and mentors.

The event began with the day’s key speaker, Lee Probert, a member of the Premier League select group list of referees and the FIFA list of referees. His first presentation of the day was about his career path and how he got to where he is today – from officiating his first match at the age of 16 on the Isle of White and having to herd sheep off the pitch, to officiating at Wembley in the 2010 FA Trophy Final.

The key message from Lee was that it doesn’t matter where you live, if you are good enough you can make it all the way to the top. With the right belief in yourself and dedication, you can go all the way.

Lee was followed by The FA’s Craig Cox, who provided The FA national update on match officials and how many officials the country has at each level of refereeing – with 5000 qualified referees at Level 9 needing to be integrated into the promotion system being the most promising figure.

Craig highlighted the promotion steps for officials at all levels and really enthused everyone with the possibilities ahead.

The final talk of the morning was from Claire Taylor of Taylormade Performance and Rehabilitation Clinic based in Exeter. Her presentation was based around prevention of injuries and nutrition, and in this she covered the benefits of a good warm-up routine and the best food and fluid intakes to use.

During lunch, delegates were treated to a surprise visit from Devon’s own Mike Mullarkey, fresh from his role as Assistant Referee at the FIFA World Cup Final in South Africa.

After Mike had given a brief talk on his experiences at the World Cup and shown his official medal, FA Level 3 Referees Coach Martin Cassidy gave a presentation on ‘Safety First Refereeing’, focussing on the advantage law and when best to play advantage or when to stop the game for a free-kick.

Following Martin, Lee and Claire once again took to the floor with presentations on ‘The benefits of keeping it simple and safe’ – demonstrating at what point is it best to blow up for a free-kick to prevent players getting out of control with the level of tackles – and helping officials deal with injuries, respectively.