walter.alibey@guardian.co.tt
After an era that produced some of the world's top football officials, such as Len Jardin, George Cumberbatch, Osmond Downer, Errol Forbes, Ramesh Ramdhan, Douglas James, Merere Gonzales, Michael Ragoonath, Joseph Taylor, Boni Bishop, Lynda Bramble-Thompson, Shayne De Silva, Cassie Moore, and Cindy Mohammed among others, the Referees Department of the TTFA has sought to improve the competences of existing referees/assistants through the FIFA Referees Assistance Programme (RAP) recently.
The course was held at the VIP Lounge of the Hasely Crawford Stadium, November 26-30 and was put together by the Referees Department of the TTFA headed by Wayne Caesar, with critical inputs from members of the Referees Committee of the TTFA, and the T&T Referees Association being led by president Taylor.
Attending the course was some of the country's best, Crystal Sobers, Cecile Hinds, Carissa Douglas (Tobago), Rodphin Harris, Ainsley Rochard, Joseph Bertrand, and Caleb Wales, all being made to undergo the FIFA Referees Fitness Test, before covering all the main issues involved in the interpretation and application of the Laws of the Game, as well as the physical fitness of the referees.
Downer who is Advisor/Consultant to the Referees Department, Bishop, General Secretary of the T&TFRA, and Notoya Byron-Frection, Secretary of the Referees Committee also attended the course.
FIFA instructors Lionel Leal-Bermudez, FIFA Referee Technical Instructor from Costa Rica, and Kalisha Antoine, FIFA Referee Physical Instructor from Antigua, conducted the course with key assistance from local Member Association (MA) instructors Ragoonath, Goolcharan, Mentor Baptiste (Tobago), Taylor and Julien Drayton, all of whom attended A FIFA Futuro III Workshop in Costa Rica in September, which prepared them for the RAP course.
The local MA delivered most of the sessions for the course with the FIFA Instructors delivering on some critical topics, while generally supervising the course. At the weekend the local instructors conducted lecture sessions and did field activities.
In all 18 referees from Trinidad and three from the sister-isle of Tobago participated, and at the end, David John-Williams, president of the T&TFA encouraged participants to strive to put T&T back on the refereeing map, as our referees led in the past among officials in the Caribbean and the CONCACAF region.
He also promised that the RAP course in 2019 will be held in the conference room of the Home of Football in Couva, which will allow participants to use the spanking new hotel to stay. He later concluded the course by handing out certificates of participation.