New benchmark for referees

By Mark Chaplin

World football's governing body FIFA has introduced a new project designed to ensure high-quality refereeing at its showpiece tournament. The 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany Referees' Project was rubber-stamped recently by the FIFA Referees and Assistant Referees Committee as part of a drive to improve refereeing.

Training and development
"For the first time in FIFA World Cup history, world football's governing body will embark on an 18-month training and development programme for the referees who will be candidates for the highly sought-after positions at the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany," FIFA said.

Starting candidates
The programme will begin in 2005 with the announcement of the 46 candidates who will compete for the final 30 positions in Germany - including many of Europe's top referees who will be hoping to find a place in the team of match officials for world football's major tournament.

Rigorous standards
In the first quarter of 2005, candidates will gather for preparatory meetings that will set rigorous standards through various theoretical and practical training sessions designed to set the bar as high as possible for 2006.

Performance assessment
These candidates will participate as match officials in various FIFA competitions throughout 2005 and will be observed to assess their performances at international and domestic level. The final list of World Cup referees will be announced in the first quarter of 2006.

Top quality
"Top quality is the goal," said FIFA president Joseph S. Blatter. "This unique programme will help us identify, train and prepare match officials for the 2006 FIFA World Cup so that we have nothing but the best referees on the pitch."

Proud history
European referees have a proud history in the World Cup. Italy's Pierluigi Collina took charge of the last final between Brazil and Germany in Japan in 2002. He was accompanied by assistants Phil Sharp (England) and Leif Lindberg (Sweden), and Hugh Dallas (Scotland) was fourth official. Kim Milton Nielsen (Denmark) took charge of the Brazil-Turkey semi-final, and Urs Meier (Switzerland) refereed the other, Germany against the Korean Republic.

Raising standards
The committee also stressed its commitment to the future by expressing strong support for a number of initiatives to raise worldwide standards of officiating, including the expansion of referee instructor courses and further development materials.

Training material
The committee also welcomed the further production of advanced refereeing training materials for the FIFA Referees' Development Training Programme, which is used in the expanded FIFA Futuro III "teach the teacher" referee instructor courses. In the last two months alone, 40 member associations have benefited from the referee instructor training courses offered by FIFA. Forty further associations will participate in the programme by the end of 2004.