For the third year running, Bermuda Football Association participated in the annual Futuro III Referring course headed up by the Senior Manager of FIFA’s refereeing department Fernando Tresaco-Garcia and Deputy General Secretary of CONCACAF Ted Howard during August 2nd – 7th, in Jamaica.
Heads of Refereeing Gregory Grimes, Referee Instructors, Granville Bennett, Anthony Mouchette and Fitness Instructor Kuhn Evans represented Bermuda. In addition, eight other countries that included (30) representatives of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) participated. Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, and host country Jamaica.
The FUTURO III Refereeing course focused on the education of referee technical instructors, referee fitness instructors, and heads of refereeing.
The course was broken down as follows: • Course for technical instructors • Course for heads of refereeing • Course for fitness instructors • The programme for the Technical Instructors Course included: • Fair Challenges • Serious Foul Play • Breaking up a Promising Attack • Simulation Offside, Interfering with Play • Concentration and alertness
The programme for Heads of Referee Course included: • Promotion and demotion of referees • Recruitment of referees • Assessment of referees
Course for Fitness Instructors: • The programme for fitness instructors course includes a fitness test and will examine injury prevention and strength
FIFA, as of March 2010 placed in their statues all Associations must have a functioning Referee's Committee as one of their standing Committees by April 2011. These statues give some clear and direct paths to follow. The BFA has begun that process and hope to have all implemented prior to the deadline.
Some of the areas are as follows: Setting up a Referee's Committee Commencing a Fitness Program Commencing an Assessment Program Standardize method of instructing referees Mentoring Program Identifying Talented Referees
A fitness program will begin shortly under the direction of Evans and Ronue Cann. The first of several educational courses/seminars for referees will take place on September 4th & 5th. An Assessor's course is being planned for the weekend of September 17-19.
During the month of November, 2 former FIFA referees from the Caribbean, Ramesh Ramdham and Peter Pendergrast will be in Bermuda to conduct a course as part of FIFA's Refereeing Assistance Program (RAP). They will be joined by FIFA Fitness instructor Merere Gonzales. In addition to conducting the course they will check on the BFA’s progress in complying with the new FIFA statues.
If you are interested in this re-birth of refereeing and ultimately football in Bermuda as either a referee or assessor please contact the BFA office.
