Dubai: The AFC Men and Assistant Referees Course 2016 for Group 4 came to a close on Friday concluding Part 1 of the AFC Refereeing Seminar 2016 which features a series of courses preparing match officials for the 2016 season.
The five day course that began on December 14 was conducted by FIFA/AFC Instructors Ali Al Traifi, Farkhad Abdullaev, Ismail Al Hafi, C. Ravichandran and Alejo Perez. A total of 43 participants -- 15 Referees and 28 assistant referees from the West, South and Central regions -- attended the course which was held in collaboration with the UAE Football Association in Dubai.
Ali Bujsaim, a former international referee who officitated in three FIFA World Cups, was a guest during the course and informed the participants that the AFC has a lot of hopes for their future performance. He encouraged them to work hard to improve their performances and make use of their chances to be the best in AFC. “The performance of our refereeing teams over the years has been commendable. You need to strive and show excellent performance to chase the ultimate dream of refereeing in a World Cup Final”, he added.
Traifi, also an AFC Referees Committee Member, thanked the UAE FA and course instructors for their dedication and contribution and advised the participants to use the knowledge gained from the course to improve their performance on the field. He continued that AFC referees have set a very high benchmark and now the AFC is not going to settle for just “good” but aiming for “excellence”.
The AFC Men Referees and Assistant Referees Course is part of the annual AFC Refereeing Seminar 2016. Two courses for the men officials were conducted in Dubai while the rest are centralised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The seminar caters for all AFC refereeing officials and is conducted over a period from December 2015 to March 2016. The Seminar will take a break during the AFC U23 Championship Qatar 2016 in January and resume in February.
Source: the-afc.com