‘Working Together’ was the theme of the Referees’ Association’s (RA) annual conference at the weekend.

RA President and FA Referees’ Committee Chairman David Elleray welcomed over 460 delegates to the Hinckley Island Hotel in the East Midlands, including FA Chairman David Bernstein and referees from all levels of the game, a high proportion being young referees. As well as a series of keynote sessions, specially designed workshops were staged by the country’s top male and female officials, discussing how officials interact before, during and after a match.

Elleray, who was the referee observer for the UEFA Euro 2012 Final between Spain and Italy last month, gave the opening address before the busy programme. As well as paying tribute to outgoing RA General Secretary Arthur Smith, who has retired after 20 years’ service, he also looked to the future with the “historic” launch of the new RA-FA Youth Council.

He said: “The formation of the RA-FA Youth Council is one of the most exciting developments in refereeing in recent years. Young people are our future and the young referees of today have the responsibility, intelligence and motivation to inform their development using modern ideas and technologies.

“This is not a youth ‘revolution’ but will certainly be a rapid revolutionary process which has the potential to make an enormous contribution to refereeing and football in this country. In my dual roles at the RA and FA I promise the Youth Council our full support ... we will watch the Council’s work with great interest.”

The members of the RA FA Youth Council are: Umar Ahmed (W.Riding FA), Tom Bowkett (Birmingham FA), Mohammad Dilawari (London FA), Will Finnie (Bedfordshire FA), Sarah Grundy (Lincolnshire FA), Sarah Hobbs (London FA), George Kimber-Sweatman (Hampshire FA), Julia Ladbrooke (Bedfordshire FA), Sam Mulhall Cheshire FA), Tom Nield (Norfolk FA), Martin Pates (Gloucestershire FA) and Amy Robinson (Hampshire FA).

The full refereeing team who represented England at Euro 2012 – Howard Webb, Mike Mullarkey, Peter Kirkup, Martin Atkinson and Mark Clattenburg – were all in attendance and ran workshops. Clattenburg took time out from his preparations for the forthcoming Olympic Games football tournament to take part.

Among the guest speakers was The FA Chairman, fresh from helping bring about the introduction of Goal-line Technology at the recent International Football Association Board meeting.

Bernstein said: “It is a pleasure to be here and it provides me with a real opportunity to express my gratitude and pride at all of the excellent work you do both domestically and internationally.

“I have said before that you have my total respect and admiration and you are indeed the glue that holds our great game together. As you well know, your profession is under increasing scrutiny as the rewards for winning football matches become ever greater.”

Addressing The FA Council last week, FA General Secretary Alex Horne had underlined the high level of refereeing in this country. He said: “Domestically we have more referees joining the fraternity and, on the whole, our senior referees in the Premier and Football Leagues are among the best in Europe and the world.

“Under ever increasing scrutiny, last season they called 99 per cent of all on/offside decisions right. We should also acknowledge Howard Webb and his team of match officials for their exemplary showing at the Euros and wish Mark Clattenburg and his team well at the forthcoming Olympics.”

The RA and FA’s commitment to developing young referees will be continued next weekend when around 100 of the country’s promising young officials attend The Football Association’s Young Referees Development Conference.

The two-day course at Staverton Park, in Northamptonshire, is for referees aged up to 23 years who are amongst the most hotly tipped young match officials in England and have been nominated by their County Football Association.

At the same time and venue England’s top female referees, who officiate regularly on international and FA WSL matches, will have their first development course since the restructuring of women refereeing earlier in the year.