Wiley speaks, Birmingham listens

Last week saw Birmingham County FA host their annual FAMOA event at the Banks’ Stadium, home of Walsall Football Club.

On a night that saw the West Midlands plunged into freezing temperatures, a deluge of heavy snow and chaos on the region’s road network, nearly 100 Birmingham Referees made the trip across the city to enjoy an informative and pleasant evening in the company of FA National Referee Managers, County FA Referee Staff and Select Group referee Alan Wiley, who was the guest speaker for the evening.

Whilst the delegates took in some much needed warm refreshments, Birmingham County FA Referee Development Officer Dave Nixon began the evening by thanking the attendees for a demonstration of their commitment by travelling through such awful weather conditions whilst outlaying the running order for the evening.

National Referee Managers Ray Olivier and Roger Vaughan then presented a series of 2009 match analysis clips for general debate and discussion amongst the delegates, who were ably supported by Alan giving his thoughts and considerations - even on a clip from one of his very own games!

Wiley then took centre stage, having received a warm introduction from Nixon who duly noted that he is still the only match official to have refereed both The FA Cup and League Cup Finals in the same domestic football season back in 2006.

Alan delivered a thoroughly informative, interactive and thought provoking presentation on how to deal with confrontation, whilst showing several topical video clips from the professional game. Alan gave advice on how to avoid confrontation and how best to deal with it when it happens.

All referees in attendance were in agreement that each of the clips presented a learning opportunity on how referees could have possibly contributed to situations of confrontation occurring and developing.

Alan very kindly offered to remain on stage to answer any questions that the delegates had. The questions, enquiries for advice and observations of current day refereeing issues came thick and fast.

Ray Olivier finally brought the evening to a close by thanking Alan for his attendance and presenting him with an FA memento whilst wishing all of the delegates a safe trip home and successful remainder of the season.