May 7th , 2002
Local Soccer Official Attends CONCACAF Workshop

By Kenisha Morgan
Cayman Islands Football Association

Mr. Speirs (center) with FA Regional Manager Ian Blanchard (left) and FA Head of Refereeing John Baker (right).

Local soccer official, Mr. Fred Speirs, recently attended two workshops organized by CONCACAF and the English Football Association. Held at the Dr. João Havelange Centre for Excellence, the workshops were aimed at current and former referees who wished to upgrade their status to Referee Instructors and Assessors.

The workshops were part of a continuing partnership between CONCACAF and the FA, started in 2000, which has resulted in the FA providing instructors for courses in Coaching, Sports Medicine, Goalkeeping and Management. The instructors at the Referee Courses were Mr. John Baker, FA Head of Refereeing, and Mr. Ian Blanchard, RA Regional Training Manager. Twenty-eight participants representing eighteen North and Central American and Caribbean countries attended.

Mr. Speirs reports that the courses were very intensive. "The Referee Instructors' Course taught us how to teach candidate referees using traditional and modern audio-visual aids. Course outlines detailing what all new referees must know, what they should know, and what they could know, were distributed. Interactive CDs on the Laws of the Game and on Refereeing were provided. All participants had to research particular topics from the Laws of the Game, then prepare short lessons and present them to the rest of the class. These lessons were then assessed by the course instructors."

The Referee Assessors Course, subtitled Helping Referees to Become Better Referees, was built around an actual match officiated by three of Trinidad's FIFA panel referees. Notes on the strengths and shortcomings of the officials were taken, and then, after training on report writing and evaluation, each participant had to write an assessment report on each official and award a score out of 10.

Mr. Speirs feels that, as a result of attending the courses, he is now better equipped to organize courses for new and continuing referees. He also hopes to use his newly acquired skills in assessment to improve the standard of refereeing. "Referees should realize that the purpose of assessment is not to criticize them. Rather, it is to identify their strengths and build on them, and to recognize their weaknesses and help them to overcome them."

Mr. Speirs thanks the Cayman Islands Football Association for providing the airline ticket and the Cayman Islands Government for granting him leave to attend the workshops.