Youngsters are learning how to be a football referee. Ghada Abd El-Kader reports on what it takes to blow the whistle Nabil Nada is the president of Sharqia football district and dean of the faculty of sports in Banha University. But Nada has a third job as well, that of an instructor in how to referee a soccer match. A referee instructor in the Union Arab De Football Association (UAFA) and the Egyptian Football Association, Nada has a PhD in arbitration and recently took the art of referring to a new level, adopting the Young Referee project and applying it in Sharqia. The project, which Nada sponsors financially and is being tried for the first time in Egypt, aims at discovering a new generation of referees who are qualified to take the field. The plan hopes to see Egyptian referees reach international level by the age of 27. Young Referee is under the supervision of Mohamed Nawara, secretary of the Sharqia referees committee, and Mohsen Hassib, president of the technical committee. The two are retired referees. The two-year plan, begun in 1 July 2006, trains newcomers between 15 and 16 years old. Fifteen students are currently enrolled. All have undergone medical tests. Most of them are junior football players who will probably never turn professional. Pro players rarely take up refereeing once they retire. The project is divided in stages. The first comprises choosing the referees. The second is theoretical. Students are lectured in football rules, tactics and skills. Also taught are refereeing signals, the use of yellow and red cards and when to blow the whistle, watching football matches, and mental and emotional preparation before matches. Fitness programmes are conducted. Then comes the practical part in which they apply all what they learnt on the pitch, refereeing mainly friendly matches. They must revise all what they have learnt after which instructors make a general evaluation. Starting at 18 years old, the students spend three years as third- class referees, followed by another three years in the second degree, then another three years working as a referee under training. Thus, an international referee can be produced by the age of 27. "After that, he can stay 19 years longer," Nawara said. Islam Mohamed Abdel-Hamid, 14, was a football player in Zamalek and Ismaili clubs and was selected best player from the Mahmoud El-Khatib School for football. "My father encouraged me to become a referee and I liked the idea, too," Abdel-Hamid said. Adds his father: "Islam is a brilliant student in school. A good referee should be cultured. And on the field a referee's career is longer than that of a player." Mohamed Abdel-Gawad, 17, said he liked the character of a referee. "He has a special status on the field. He's a symbol of justice. I also learnt many things like the rules, refereeing mistakes, discipline and concentration during matches." Mahmoud Ahmed El-Marzouki,16, is in his last year in high school. "I think the referee is more important than the player. He's always there. Without a referee, there's no match." "Planning for a football game is always for a short term," says Gamal El-Ghandour, a former referee who participated in the 1998 and 2002 World Cups. "All teams plan only for one season, no more. But the more successful clubs have long-term plans and as such always have a good administration. "The main concern for the referees is arbitrating for one season. However, the Egyptian Referees Committee started to look ahead. We need young Egyptian international referees less than 30 years old like in other countries. A referee needs 10 years to reach international level. So, we started Young Referee from the age of 14 to 15. They begin to participate in minor matches and competitions. When they reach 16 or 17 we accredit them as referees," added El-Ghandour, who enjoys a bevy titles: an instructor in the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and in FIFA, and chairman of the Egypt Referees Committee, plus a member of the referees committee in UAFA. "I believe that any new idea should start simply and be experimental," El-Ghandour said. While visiting California in 1993, Nada practiced arbitration. At that time, America was preparing for the 1994 World Cup. "I noticed that there were boys and girls less than 16 years old training to be referees. Others were more than 60 years old. George Faragallah, an Egyptian supervisor for referee affairs, had been living in California for more than 20 years. "He asked me to participate in referee activities in California," Nada told Al-Ahram Weekly. "We started on the Young Referee plan but we didn't finish it. I returned to Egypt with the idea still in mind. From 2004 to 2006 I presented the project several times but no official grasped the idea. But when Nada met the governor of Sharqia who allotted a plot of land for training referees, the plan had finally begun to take shape. "Today, we are preparing another batch of young referees," Nada said. "We record and observe the advantages and disadvantage in every step. "If the experiment succeeds we will expand it to cover all governorates," Nada said. "The president of the Egyptian Football Association [Samir Zaher] is waiting for the results." In order to subsidise Young Referee, Nada will give lectures and will choose a few international referees who recently retired to help out. Nada detailed his plans at an international instructors meeting of FIFA in Zurich. "I talked with FIFA about support and how to train international instructors. We also want to send young referees abroad to gain more experience." During his meetings in Zurich, Nada got FIFA to approve making a CD on how to teach referees. "We don't have that in Egypt. We'll try to make the CD in Arabic." So what's needed to be a good referee? Three special skills, according to Nada: a love of refereeing, a high level of fitness and a strong leader.
