Boffins help soup up Icelandic refereeing

New Football Association of Iceland (KSÍ) vice-president Gylfi Thór Orrason hopes his experience can help inspire the next generation of local referees – with a little help from the University of Reykjavik.

Meteoric rise
The 49-year-old official, who was a regular in international fixtures from 1992 to 2004, stood for election to the KSÍ board with a view to strengthening Icelandic refereeing and building on Iceland's recent admission to the UEFA Referee Convention. Even so, he has had a much quicker rise within the national association than he ever expected.

Positive intentions
"I carried on refereeing into 2007 but asked to work more in the lower divisions – it's not easy just to stop, given refereeing played such a big part in my life for 25 years," Orrason told uefa.com. "I decided to join the board because I wanted to help and contribute to the refereeing sector. Then president Geir Thorsteinsson called me in.

Honour accepted
"I expected a chat about the KSÍ referees commitee but he wanted to make changes to the board and with the vice-president ready to move on, the president offered me his chair. I asked why on earth was he talking to me about the post, and he said he would like to freshen things up. He explained his ideas, let me think it over for a day, and after that I was ready and accepted the honour."

Older generation
Emboldened by his new position, Orrason swiftly took positive steps when he and other experienced officials on the KSÍ referees committee contacted the University of Reykjavik. "We, the old referees, wanted to share some of our experience with new referees. We turned to the university for advice regarding the psychology part but they wanted to discuss it further.

University innovation
"We made agreements with the sports faculty about a number of matters, for example psychology and physical tests. We have had a lot of educational material from UEFA and have given copies to the university to incorporate into their programmes. They have adapted it to the conditions in Iceland and the students have been working with the referees. The university want to take this cooperation further and establish a development institute involving other sports. If that happens, it will give us an important role."