Standard of Referees to come under review

[Sean]

Football Federation Australia (FFA) today announced the appointment of Mario Van der Ende to conduct an independent review of Australian match officiating standards, systems and practices.

"This is the review we had to have," said FFA CEO, Ben Buckley.

"Referees are a critical component of any sport and have an important role to play in the game."

Buckley said that Van der Ende will identify the gaps and areas for improvement in the development of match officials at all levels of the sport and recommend strategies to address any shortcomings.

The scope of the review will include elite level officiating, education and development, recruitment and retention and cultural attitudes towards officials at all levels of the game.  It will take place in two stages with an early focus on the elite level, followed by the entire game including grassroots football, with final recommendations due in August.

Buckley said that Van der Ende is highly qualified to undertake the review.

"Were delighted that Mario could assist us with this review.

"He was a top level referee for more than 25 years, including 12 years and 135 matches as an international FIFA referee," Buckley said.

Van der Ende has officiated at the FIFA World Cup and Euro on multiple occasions, and was on the prestigious FIFA Referees' Committee for four years until last year.

He has been a referee instructor across the world including throughout continental Europe, England, Northern Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Surinam, Turkey and New Zealand to name just a few.

"Marios appointment is a fantastic opportunity for FFA and the rest of the football family to enhance the role of referees to the game.

"Ultimately, we want to ensure that referees have the skills and training they need to perform their role with confidence, that we attract more people to refereeing and that referees contribution to the game is recognised and valued by players, administrators and spectators."

Van der Ende will consult with all Hyundai A-League clubs and will meet with Australias elite referees at a forum to be held next week.

Taken from Syd forum.
Source = FFA

 

[FFC Mariner]

I can save him some time.

Breeze is bent, Shields is crap, the AR's are too unfit and not standard required.

Rant over

 

[Capn Gus Bloodbeard]

It's obvious that there are problems with the system, when you consider that our top officials can make massive blunders on a weekly basis, and for this not to have any impact on who gets appointed the week after.

Of course, if the official is not one of the Favoured Three, then, and only then, do they sometimes suffer for screwing up (but we never hear about it).

In terms of HAL officials there certainly are problems.

Cultural attitudes towards officials?  That's rather universal, and football probably has the worst cultural attitude towards officials out of just about any sport - although we (as in, state and federal bodies) have been making some effort to affect this over the last few years, even with such simple measures as mandating the presence of ground officials at all matches, so I guess he's going to have a look and see if more can be done.

Ultimately, if any improvements are made in any manner then it's going to benefit all players and spectators, so it's a good thing - though I won't be holding my breath to see if anything actually comes of all this.  It wouldn't surprise me if he writes up this lengthy report full of recommendations, only for FFA to file it in the bottom drawer, never to be seen again.

Still, it's good that they're looking outside the country for advice.  Hopefully this means the advice won't come from somebody who's already been broken into the beaurocracy and status quo in Australia. 

 

[Paolo]

So, when are we going to start calling ourselves Holland???

 

[dibo]

we're 'new holland'

 

[BrisRecky]

we're 'new holland'

we sure are cause Dirk Hartog said so.......

 

[loyalist]

if only we had their drug policy

 

[midfielder]

I think the FFA are doing the right thing .......... they are not sweeping the problem under the carpet.

Look after the choppers kicked the s**t out of us in that 5-4 loss, F the worst ref ever, then devil child not being sent off after punching linie in the nuts, and who can forget the hands of God first Holland hand & then Dannie's.

Another season of similar things would harm the game ........... good to see some action being taken.

 

[Blackadder]

All well and good talking about it, time will tell if it actually achieves anything.