Premier Ace Bennett Addresses League Officials
On Sunday 21st June the Principality Welsh Premier League Match Officials held its annual seminar in the function suite at Newtown Football Club.
Present were Referees, Assistant Referees and Match Delegates/Referee Assessors and invited guests who included several junior referees recommended as having perceived potential for development from the Area Football Associations who attended to gain experience of mixing with their more senior colleagues and listening to the speakers.
Referees Committee Chairman Phil Woosnam opened proceedings by welcoming all present before handing over to National Referees' Officer Rodger Gifford who conducted a review of the last twelve months before passing on a message from Welsh Premier Secretary John Deakin in relation to League issues for the year ahead.
Rodger then introduced the guest speaker for the day, FA Premiership Refeferee and FIFA Instructor Steve Bennett who became a Football League referee in 1996 moving swiftly to the FA Premier League where he was one of the first to be made a full time professional. He was appointed to the FIFA Panel in 2001 swiftly moving into UEFA's list of Elite Referees.
Apart from refereeing around the world in such diverse places as Brazil v Argentina and Bhutan v Monserrat in the Himalays at 20,000 feet above sea level, he also has the impressive double of refereeing the 2005 Carling Cup Final at the Millennium Stadium and the first FA Cup Final at the new Wembley in 2007.
Steve's first presentation was on 'Managing Restarts' using several DVD clips to promote discussion and with the audience already positioned in their discussion groups he ensured that everyone was involved and participated fully in the proceedings before summing up the key points for the benefit of his audience.
The afternoon session was kicked of by newly promoted Welsh Premier referee Kevin Morgan from Cardiff who spoke on, 'The difference twelve months makes', Kevin's address was certainly humorous but more importantly contained a great deal of advice regarding setting standards and achieving targets which was very well received by his audience.
Steve Bennett then returned for his second presentation which was about the 'Use of the hand/arm in challenges' which included hand ball. Again DVD examples were shown which ensured full interaction with the audience. Debate was as lively as the morning session before Steve summarised the key issues in relation to his topic. The amount of advice he passed on in relation to both his topics was of the very highest order and of great benefit to those present.
In concluding the day's proceedings Chairman Phil Woosnam paid tribute to Steve's professionalism before presenting him with a memento in recognition of his visit to the Principality. NRO Rodger Gifford commented afterwards;
"I've known Steve Bennett for a very long time and at the moment his diary is full of appointments to speak both in Europe and Africa, however, when I asked him if he could come to give our referees the benefit of his experience he willingly agreed to come along without any reservation.
"He is the consummate professional and we are very fortunate to have someone of his stature in the game spend the day with us as best summed up by several e-mails and texts received expressing the opinion that this was the best annual seminar yet. It was also rewarding to see so many of the FAW Referees' Committee supporting the day, with those who were unable to attend sending their apologies but giving messages of support".
