We were very pleased to see approximately 120 referees and senior County Football Association members attend the above conference in the Matt Le Tissier suite at St Mary's Stadium, home of Southampton FC, on a day when we were vying for time with competition from some very exciting World Cup football being shown on television.

There was a lot of very positive feedback received from the evaluation forms to declare that the conference was a huge success, and that it was really worthwhile attending. We were obviously very pleased with this response, and a huge thank you must go to all those who helped with the organization and implementation on the day.

The conference was broken down into 4 sections with a keynote speech at the end, each section being introduced and linked by myself (Janie Frampton Regional Manager for Referees - South).

John Baker set the conference off on an upbeat theme speaking about FAMOA, the first year, what the future holds and how it dovetails into the role of the RA. The second half of his presentation covered the Law changes for next season, and how they were arrived at by the International Board.

Vernon Crew (RM North East) spoke about fitness, focusing on the techniques available for all standards of refereeing, emphasizing that we must change our mind set from 'refereeing to keep fit' to 'keeping fit to referee'.

There was a lot of good advice regarding diet and how to calculate our optimum weight and body fat percentage in a simple basic fashion that was within 1% of the accuracy attained through the caliper and computer annalist systems used in the higher echelons of refereeing. We then had an opportunity to view the new video 'Warm Up, Warm Down'.

Roger Vaughan (RM South West) used both Video and interactive CD to cover positioning and movement, Roger emphasized the importance of linking Fitness to positioning & movement with that of awareness and anticipation on the part of the referee and the assistant referees, video clips of practical match situations were shown to support this.

For lunch an interesting (and described by one attendee as 'exotic') buffet was provided, we then resumed with the afternoons programme when Keith Hill (RM East) spoke about teamwork, using the video 'Teamwork' very effectively with lots of audience participation in terms of pre-match instructions.

Finally, the key-note speaker was Rob Styles, a Select List Referee and England's newest FIFA referee. Rob was informative, humorous and provided a very positive and realistic incentive to the younger referees. His presentation was very thought provoking, where by he eluded to the importance of balancing your life and keeping your feet firmly placed on the ground.

He revealed the inner requirements of a referee on the Select List regarding time commitment, fitness training and their development needs and how they are addressed and the ultimate expectation of them. He finished referring to pride, the pride in being a referee, of wearing the 3 lions and how proud he was this year representing his country.

In the words of Robert Styles 'Control the Controllables' a truly inspirational presentation for all levels of referees. It was truly a most enjoyable and rewarding day, I am sure those that attended will spread the word so that next year we will have an even higher attendance.

It is a conference designed for our referees, so we will do our utmost to make sure we deliver what you require to fulfill your development needs.