Aid for AFC

He was there between 9-19 January 2010 to support the Asian Football Confederation in the delivery of their Elite Referee Education Programmes.

During the ten days of his visit he delivered five courses for new and existing elite referee assessors and instructors, as well as supporting the AFC Referee Recruiter Programme.

Since my first visit in 2007, when the Project Future programme was launched, things have moved on considerably in AFC with regard to referee development. The President of AFC, Mohammed Bin Hamman, opened the course programmes by saying that he was highly delighted with the quality of refereeing in Asia and that since our involvement he had noticed an improvement in the quality of refereeing and in those involved in supporting and training referees.

The theme of the various programmes was ‘Consistency and Uniformity’. The new elite assessor’s course considered the skills of assessing as well as identifying the dynamics of producing a quality assessment report. After this two day programme, the group of 17 were joined by 38 existing elite assessors.

A game in the Malaysian Super League was used to analyse the referee’s performance and thereafter analyse and develop consistent report writing.  Interestingly, this programme brought together 55 people from 27 countries that are responsible for the development of the elite group of referees throughout Asia.

There followed a one day update on the Referee Recruiter Programme which is designed to train recruiters whose role is to identify talented referees to move into the elite group of referees. The last two courses focused on referee instructors and the main work was centred on developing programmes of training and resources that will be circulated throughout the 46 countries that make up the AFC.

George Cumming, Head of Referee Education at AFC and former Director of Refereeing at Fifa, is coming to the end of a two year tenure at AFC. He has made a huge impact on referee education and instructing in his time there. In fact, he is bringing a group of six talented young referees, who were all part of the original Project Future group, to England in February 2010 to learn and gain experience from our Select Group of referees.

So, another visit to AFC is concluded but once again has been one which has reaped its rewards.  The partnership that exists between ourselves and the largest confederation is unique and functional.  There is a desire to make an impact and I can honestly say that I believe through the quality people that AFC have in place supporting their referees and with the help and support of ourselves, we are beginning to see improvement and quality.

Ian Blanchard
Senior National Game Referee Manager