French referee promotion drive

France is looking to prevent a dearth of referees at grassroots level through a major publicity campaign, which includes a TV spot during the current FIFA World Cup.

Conveyor belt
While the French have produced a conveyor belt of gifted footballers in recent times – and have been rewarded with one world and one European title as a result – there is continuing concern about the recruitment of referees lower down the country’s footballing scale.

Recruitment drive
Consequently, the French Football Federation (FFF) is hard at work pursuing a concerted recruitment drive to find the referees of tomorrow, who will aspire to the same heights as Gilles Veissierre, France’s referee at the current FIFA World Cup.

Image improvement
The recruitment drive and publicity campaign, says FFF National Refereeing Technical Director Michel Vautrot, aims at improving the image of refereeing as a “profession” within the game, and is also designed to make players and coaches aware of the referee’s role within the game.

Considerable development
“Since Claude Simonet became federation president, the refereeing sector within the federation has developed considerably,” says Vautrot, who enjoyed a distinguished career as a referee at football’s highest levels. “A National Technical Direction – the equivalent of the same body at technical level – has been created for French refereeing, and we have an increased staff and greater financial resources.

Various channels
“The federation realised that recruitment levels were not good, and a lot of work has been done – now we are pushing our efforts even further, thanks to the opportunity to publicise refereeing through a variety of channels,” he added.

Training and developing
Over the past few months, the FFF has worked together with a major French household goods chain which has invested considerable sums of money and resources, enabling the federation to train and develop referees from a young age throughout the country.

Radio and TV
As a result, the Laws of the Game and key refereeing elements have been explained in a high-circulation Sunday newspaper supplement, refereeing questions have also been discussed on the highly popular Sunday “Téléfoot” TV programme, and refereeing has had its own regular spot in a weekly sports programme on a national radio station.

Top magazine
“Articles on refereeing have also appeared in top French football magazines such as ‘France Football’, ‘L’Equipe’ and ‘Onze Mondiale’,” says Vautrot.

High-profile
One of the high-profile means used to promote refereeing in France has been the creation of a TV spot, in which a young player performs a piece of skill, and is gradually transformed by technological trickery into a referee who goes on to score a goal and receives the congratulations of players and coaches.

Simple message
“Through the spot, we wanted to convey a simple football message - that players and referee might wear two different shirts, but we all share the same passion,” says Vautrot, a member of UEFA’s Referees Committee and a tireless worker on behalf of the “men in black”.

Obvious aim
“While we naturally continue to take great care of the leading referees in France, the obvious aim is also to make sure that there are enough young referees coming through for the future,” says Vautrot.

Target audience
“Our partners in the publicity campaign have the best interest of referees at heart, so the target audience are those younger football enthusiasts who might not make the best footballers, but who might take another route in the game,” he adds. “So the more we can promote refereeing in this way, the more chance we have to increase understanding of the referee’s job, and the more opportunity there will be to persuade young people to try it.”