PAGO PAGO – A FIFA Level 1 referee’s course has recently been completed in Pago Pago under the guidenace of FIFA referee instructor and Oceania Football Confederation chairman of referees Massimo Raveino of Tahiti and OFC referee instructor from the Solomon Islands, Neil Poloso.
Raveino, a former referee who has been an instructor with OFC the last four years and with FIFA the last two, said that he came straight from Beijing, China after attending the Beijing Olympic Games in his role with FIFA as a referee instructor and assessor.
The course was made available to members only of the FFAS and 25 slots were given to open for the 20 clubs affiliated with the soccer association. FFAS CEO Tavita Taumua told Samoa News that some of the participants have already been licensed as Level 1 referees but he asked them to retake the course again, which a lot of the soccer association’s referees have done.
Raveino extolled the participants in the first theoretical session to strive to be international referees because Oceania is lacking in that area.
He told them that Oceania had three representatives at the Olympic games: Mike Hester, a New Zealand referee and two assistant referees, Tevita Makasini of Tonga and Michael Joseph of Vanuatu.
“We need many international referees in Oceania, but it is a big challenge (and) we need your cooperation,” Raveino said. “Maybe last night you had a vision that this is what you want.”
He explained a referee program passed by the FIFA Executive Committee last year — Refereeing Assistance Program, called RAP for short.
One of its main objective of RAP, as explained on FIFA’s website www.fifa.com, “is to (professionalize) the environment in which referees develop and work — at both the national and international level.”
It is also for “the preparation of potential match officials for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the professionalization of refereeing at the top level” and “the development of refereeing at (the) member association level,” such as this current course being held.
The other objectives of this program, are to develop and increase the quality of referees and assistant referees, recruiting and increasing the number of referees, improving the performance and consistency of American Samoan referees and to have uniformity when applying the Laws of the Game.
Raveino said that FIFA earmarked USD$40 million for this project.
He told them that after the course, he hopes that they “invest” what they have learnt over the past week.
Story courtesy of Football Federation American Samoa (FFAS) Media
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