FIFA Futsal Referee Instructor, Neil Poloso has acknowledged the progress in 20 local Futsal referees after 5 days of conducting an MA Futsal Referees course held in the Loto-Tonga Football Center from Monday 16th to the Friday 20th of October.
More than half of the participants of which are amateur referees had very little experience in the game especially the laws of the game but have the situation overturned after the long week theory and practical sessions according to Poloso.
“This is my first time to conduct a Futsal Referees course in Tonga in which I was happy to see the level of knowledge the referees are on because we know Tonga have started Futsal for a number of years now and have competed in the OFC competitions for a few years too.”
“For the course I had picked certain topics to cover before I arrived but I was able to spot that the level of knowledge is quite low in the beginning, because most of the participants have yet to officiate in a Futsal match.”
“I adapted to the situation and had to cover all the 17 laws of the game during the week. Starting with the amendments to the law so they know the changes from the previous laws to the current laws and from that to the rest of the 17 laws and make sure they receive all the important information in order for them to be able to referee in a futsal match.”
11 participants are High School Students and the rest of the participants are adults but some have are also new to the code but all concluded the course with the same outcome ready to officiate in a Futsal Match
Sharing his views, Mr Poloso outlined that one of his objectives in the course is to see and identify some talents and recommend them to the OFC Academy in Futsal and work with them further.
“There are some very good talents I can see at the end of the course but it needs a little bit more work and I encourage them to keep working hard and referee in as many futsal match as they can and when I come back next year I want to test them again if they will be fit to climb to the next level.”
Course was assisted by Tonga Futsal Referees Instructor, Siutaisa Tu’itupou, Sione Teu and also Referees Fitness Instructor, Siuta Tavake.
Mr Poloso will travel to Ha’apai to conduct an MA Course for the local Beach Soccer Referees in the coming week.
End.
