The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) today launched a campaign to recruit referees, aiming to improve the quality of national arbitration with a larger recruitment base, according to the president of the Arbitration Council (CA), José Fontelas Gomes.

The director estimates that there is a shortage of around a thousand referees in the modalities overseen by the FPF, such as football, indoor football and beach football, accounting for 5,800 registered, but only 4,800 active referees, which justifies the launch of the initiative “the is part of the game, come referee” among young people.

“We want to show that arbitration is a beautiful profession, that it is a profession that can be practiced, that gives pleasure and that is what we have to show: the good of arbitration and not pursuing the evil,” said José Fontelas Gomes, after a publicity campaign at Cidade do Futebol, in Oeiras.

Today, several second-year students of the master’s degree in football at the Faculty of Human Motricity (FMH), at the University of Lisbon, accompanied the first-line referees, during field training, in the morning, and as a video referee (VAR), in the afternoon.

Fontelas Gomes finds in the environment surrounding referees the justification for being less faithful to the role, emphasizing, however, that this “can become an attractive career, with its returns, even financial, as you reach higher levels”. “The environment in which we live, but this is the largest campaign ever conducted in Portugal for the recruitment of referees. And in this sense I must say a word of thanks to the commitment of the associations and their arbitration boards and also to APAF [Associação Portuguesa de Árbitros de Futebol] in this area, which are unsurpassed, sometimes without the best conditions,” he said.

The shortage of referees does not only affect Portugal. UEFA is also launching a recruitment campaign as it reports a shortage of around 45,000 new referees in Europe.

Fontelas Gomes: ‘It is difficult to attract referees’

When asked about the current situation in national arbitration, Fontelas Gomes believes that the sector has improved since he became leader of the arbitration body. “The FPF gives us all the conditions, everything we asked for. The referees work and do everything they can, within their field of work, and the truth is that we have improved. Over the past seven years, things have changed sometimes worse and sometimes has gone better. These types of actions are intended to improve arbitration, creating a larger recruitment base,” he concluded.

Among those present at the action was international referee Catarina Campos, who praised the positive aspects of the activity and rejected that this deficit was due to any negligence on the part of the FPF. “I don’t think there is forgetfulness. It is difficult to attract referees because it is not an easy role to play. We are increasingly experiencing these difficulties because of this demand, and it is difficult to make young people believe that this is a path worth walking. It’s a shame,” said Catarina Campos.

Also present at the action, referee Cláudio Pereira, from the Aveiro association, confirmed the assessment and promised “good feelings” to young people who, as happened today, tried to whistle with one of the trainees.

“When we were now in the VAR room, I even coincidentally told the boy who was with me that he had to make a mistake in some assessment, otherwise he would steal our place,” the 36-year-old said between continue laughing. a year-old referee, who, as he shared his analysis with a young man, to whom former international Jorge Sousa even confided, “go to Human Resources”.