The lack of referees is a problem today in Portuguese football. In an initiative of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), some students from the Faculty of Human Motor Skills meet this Thursday alongside professional referees to learn more about refereeing and with the aim of encouraging them to pursue a career as a referee.
The classes are theoretical, but also practical. And in practice, anyone who wants to make a career in the profession has to know how to make good decisions, in times of stress and in a short time. In one drill, a young student runs from the center of the field to a screen near the sideline. At your side are the referees Artur Soares Dias and Hugo Miguel and you must make a decision in a few seconds:
“Is it a penalty or not?” asks Hugo Miguel.
“No,” the student responds.
“Well boy, that’s it,” is heard in the voice of Artur Soares Dias.
The young man leaves smiling and the training continues with the repetition of the same exercise, but with different movements to be analyzed.
It is a difficult profession and has many disadvantages. Artur Soares Dias gives advice to young people: “Don’t give up.” The experienced referee warns that there are serious problems in the world of refereeing and that “weekend after weekend the referees are attacked and it makes no sense.” For this reason, the Porto ‘judge’ recognizes that nowadays “retaining referees is complicated.”
Nuno Almeida, a 48-year-old referee for AF Algarve, tries to give young people the pleasure it is possible to have in refereeing, explaining that “at first it can be a pleasure, but then it becomes an even greater passion.” . Ana Afonso, also from the Portuguese refereeing team, highlights that the profession “has many advantages”, but warns that “there are increasingly more athletes and fewer referees” in professional and non-professional football.
Students from various sports majors at the Faculty of Human Motor Skills meet the referees, train with them and are encouraged to choose refereeing as a career. One of them is André Baptista, 21 years old, who is starting his master’s degree in football, but who prefers to work in a technical team than to be a referee, although he considers refereeing to be fun. One of the reasons that keeps young people from following the path of the whistle is because “in our country, if a referee makes ten decisions, nine right and one wrong, it will always be the wrong one and not the right one,” highlights the student.
Everyone reinforces that in Portugal there is a lack of referees and that it is necessary for more people to be interested in the profession. With this ‘on top’ coverage of the event for students, the FPF seeks to recruit more young talents for refereeing, encouraging students to combat the shortage of referees in Portugal.
Source: TSF
