Referees Assemble for Dallas Training Day
The annual seminar for Welsh Premier Referees, Assistant Referees and Assessors took place on Sunday 4th of July at the excellent facilities provided by Newtown Football Club. Also in attendance were David Griffiths, Treasurer of the FAW, Andrew Howard, Head of Competitions and Referees' Administrative Assistant Phil Southall who was wished all the very best in his new role.
Referees' Committee Chairman Phil Woosnam opened the proceedings and thanked everyone for attending and also National Referees' Officer Rodger Gifford for organising the day before handing over to him to run through the day's events.
After going through a brief review of the past year Rodger introduced the Guest Speaker for the day who was Hugh Dallas of Scotland. Hugh officiated at the World Cup Finals of 1998 and 2002 (where he was 4th Official for the Final)one UEFA Cup Final and one UEFA Super Cup Final and The Confederations Cup as well as a record number of Celtic v Rangers Auld Firm games in the Scottish Premier League. Hugh, apart from being head of Referee Development for the Scottish FA is one of 4 Instructors working on behalf of FIFA and UEFA around the world on refereeing projects and we were extremely grateful that he could fit in a visit to Wales as part of his hectic schedule.
The whole day revolved around practical refereeing matters where those present were in discussion groups to analyze DVD clips and generally feed back to the whole meeting and it was pleasing to note quite a high degree of consistency in how incidents were viewed. The subjects ranged from judging, careless / reckless / excessive challenges, Denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity as against breaking up a promising attack, Offside and Teamwork. There was also a session where those present also had to answer a test paper on the Laws of the Game.
When Hugh took a short break the floor was taken by Ray Ellingham who gave the assembled a breakdown on how fitness is to be monitored and judged in the future now that Wales are part of the UEFA Convention on Refereeing which was interesting and informative. Hugh then returned to conclude with a summary of the decisions arrived at in the discussion groups and before we knew it the final whistle was upon us.
NRO Rodger Gifford then called upon Chairman Phil Woosnam to make a presentation to Hugh on behalf of those present before wishing everyone present a safe journey home.
The NRO observed afterwards that it was an extremely successful day where all present were inter active in their various discussion groups and had a part to play in giving their opinions on the various situations. Every effort is made to raise the bar each year in providing the best possible in service training and education for our National List match officials and to have someone of Hugh Dallas's caliber whose delivery combined professionalism, humour and thought provoking views speaks volumes for the recognition that Wales is now beginning to get in European terms. In summary a very successful day.
