Tomorrow's top referees

UEFA's campaign to nurture Europe's up-and-coming young referees continues with the third Seminar for UEFA Referee Talents and Mentors, which begins at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland on 30 April.

Following progress
The three-day seminar brings together referees earmarked by European football's governing body for future progress, as well as their 'mentors' – former European referees who have been given the task of following the young referees' progress. Members of UEFA's Referees Committee and senior UEFA referee instructors will also be present.

Detecting talent
UEFA's 'talents and mentors' programme is now into its third year, and the objective of the programme is to detect refereeing talent throughout Europe, harness and nurture this talent and prepare top young referees for their duties at UEFA matches in the coming years. A total of 22 young referees and eleven mentors will be involved in the programme in 2003/04.

Expert advice
The mentors stay in constant touch with the specific referees assigned to them, by monitoring their performances in domestic competitions in particular. As many of the mentors have refereed European football matches at the highest level, they are ideally placed to offer expert advice, constructive criticism and crucial guidance to promising young referees who are setting out on a career that they hope will see them emulate the current top match officials such as Italy's Pierluigi Collina, who took charge of last year's FIFA World Cup final.

Match visit
Participants at the seminar are scheduled to attend the international friendly match between Switzerland and Italy in Geneva next Wednesday before the programme gets under way in earnest the following day. The young referees will be told about the concept, objectives and guidelines of the UEFA talents and mentors programme, as well as the appointments that they can expect to be given by UEFA during the programme.

Preparing for games
During the seminar, the referees will also be given guidance on how to prepare for a UEFA match, while the mentors will discuss their role in the programme in the light of previous experiences over the past three years, as well as looking at ways of developing and improving their contacts with their specific referees.

Training session
Fitness training is also on the agenda, and Prof. Werner Helsen, the Belgian refereeing fitness expert who works together with UEFA on referee training and provides Europe's top referees with detailed training programmes, will lead the referee talents through a two-hour training session.