Become a Mini Whistler

The Derbyshire County Football Association is committed to supporting grassroots clubs to raise standards of football provision. School, club, league and referee development all form an integral part of The FA’s National Game Strategy

We fully understand and embrace that not all young people will have the skills needed to be fulfilled as players, however, there are many that if introduced young enough would gain a lot of knowledge, skills and enjoyment in participating as a match official. We have made our first steps in delivering the 'Mini Whistler' Programme at Anthony Gell School - a Specialist Sports College - to 16 potential future Sports Leaders earlier this month.

Our aim is to deliver an introduction to officiating through schools and clubs via a ‘Mini Whistler’ Programme as the first step on the development pathway as a match official. This aims to widen the depth and breadth of knowledge and experience gained by our young people through Mini Soccer, Small Sided Football and beyond, culminating in the Basic Referee Training Course which will enable them to officiate 11 v 11 football as and when appropriate. This initiative we hope will also be supported by those taking their ‘Junior Football Organisers Award’ and other leadership programmes.

Once trained, the PE teachers (Bob Etheridge), Coaches and Referee Instructors (Graham Belcher) will be able to register to run a course through their County FA. This will then allow them to access resources to run the course for students aged 11-14 at their school as part of the Leadership and Volunteering programme or Charter Standard Club. The advantage of this model is that after the initial training it is financially self sustained as schools/clubs would be able to access student resources to continue the wider development of the programme.

Course Content
We believe that officiating is an integral part of children and young peoples’ learning and development within football and this initiative would link into the good practice principles that are currently being delivered.

Outcomes include knowledge, leadership, ownership, respect, behaviour, empowerment and development pathways whilst skills such as management of self, people and situations, Communication (via verbal /body language/cool and calm/assertive/non-aggressive) and decision making, courage and self esteem can all be garnered.

To achieve this, the objectives are-:

• Encourage young people to take up the challenge to officiate games and tournaments.
• To provide children aged 11 to 14 the opportunity to gain experience and knowledge as a match official which in turn will improve their leadership skills, confidence and self esteem.
• Support young people to progress their officiating through Schools, quality FA Charter Standard Junior Clubs and County FA Youth Clubs who display the same ethos for learning and development
• Introduce refereeing to young people in order to give them the opportunity to experience the enjoyment and fulfilment as a match official at an early stage of their development.
• At an early age, help prevent barriers being raised towards match officials therefore nurturing and developing respect between the different roles in football.
• Develop leadership skills in young people.
• Engage young people in the process of respecting the role of the match official.
• Raising awareness of the benefits available throughout the existing development pathway.
• Continue to endorse safety issues regarding the field of play, including goal post safety.