New Season

It's been a while since the last post but its hard to keep up to date with the changes within Futsal refereeing and the game itself in England. Sat beside a hotel pool in Gran Canaria allows the time to reflect on what lies ahead and what has been achieved through the lengthy closed and pre seasons we have. 

I am out here with a colleague as guests of Malta '97 Futsal club who have organised the Torneo Internacional Futsal Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2013. Here in Spain pre season Futsal tournaments are rare and even more so with guest referees, so it's a real privilege to be here. Over the last few days we have experience all levels of the Spanish game concluding with an all LNFS top flight final encounter between Marfill Santa Coloma v H. Llevant Manacor and in the main the belief is that we have refereed well and more importantly shown that English referees are up to the task of performing amongst the best teams. Obviously this is a great opportunity for us but goes to show how far we have come in the last few years in our development. 

The depth of English Futsal refereeing is beginning to show, earlier in the closed season one national list referee travelled again to Spain but this time for the European University Championships. His first taste of such an event and performed exceptionally well securing a 1st referee appointment on a quarter final. Two national list referees and and two observers will travel to Malta in September in a further quest to broaden our knowledge base but more importantly for us to create workable partnerships where we can learn together which is the key in our developing game. 

As we work hard on the pitch this is also matched by the commitment and enthusiasm off the pitch as we strive to create a structure that will not only make our game more attractive to the traditionalists but create the next top referees. Behind the scenes see several key changes which will be supported by two new appointments officers who will bring a new professionalism to the set up. The English Futsal refereeing structure now has a firm two their structure with Level 1 & 2's now officiating all top flight games and level 3 & 4's securing appointments in tier two and the development competitions. Both groups although operating match days separately will all have a unified training programme with development days throughout the season including those dreaded fitness tests. 

The future and structure looks bright for our development which in many ways is ahead of our league at this stage but the key is that we need to be ready and we already have high expectations in which we need to meet. As we can start to reflect on these changes it's clear that no one section can work alone and key partnerships need to be developed but one thing that still sets our game aside from its traditional bigger brother is that family feel and it is this ingredient which is the most important. 

Roll on the season!