Speaker
Description
The research discusses the training systems of football referees in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), primarily focusing on the training of non-FIFA listed young prospects. Modern football to date has become faster, arguably more complicated, and more physically demanding, requiring the referee to make decisions while being involved in high intensity exercise. Hence international football organizations, such as the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the AFC, have started to pay attention to developing specific abilities and skills which football referees need. Since 2007, the AFC created the unique referee training programmes such as the AFC Project Future and the AFC Referee Academy for young match officials from the member associations around Asia. The research involved semi-structured interviews with 26 AFC Elite Referees, 3 AFC referee directors and 2 Taiwanese referees who participated in the programmes as the research method. As an AFC accredited referee, the author also conducted first-person observational research. The results show that the AFC representatives are satisfied with and motivated by the referee education programmes for promoting young non-FIFA listed prospects. The AFC referee directors recognized that the development of football refereeing in Asia should be understood as 'an ongoing process'. The achievement of the AFC Project Future and the AFC Referee Academy shows that the AFC particularly focus on the training and development of potential future international referees. The programmes accomplish the consistency and uniformity of football refereeing for potential future AFC Elite Referees in their early stages of referee career and give them opportunities to participate in AFC's referee activities as early as possible.
