The IBSA Football Committee has announced an exciting new on-line education opportunity for aspiring blind football referees. The course is aimed at referees beginning their journey in blind football and it will consist of three two-hour sessions on the Zoom platform.

The committee is continuing its efforts to expand the pool of qualified officials worldwide by providing this free course despite the recent lack of competitions and opportunities to attend face-to-face courses. It will be given by Refereeing Co-ordinator Mariano Travaglino and it takes place in the framework of the UEFA-sponsored IBSA Blind Football Development Project Europe in the run-up to the Euro Challenge Cup in Stockholm, Sweden, in June.

 
While primarily aimed at European officials, the course is open to budding referees from all parts of the world. It will include basic information on the sport and will teach a solid grounding on the rules of the game.
 
Scheduled dates and times for the course are:
 
Monday March 29th, 18:00-20:00 CET
Monday April 26th, 18:00-20:00 CET
Monday May 17th, 18:00-20:00 CET
 
Sign up for the course here.

Successful participants will receive an on-line certificate of participation following the third session.
 
A committee spokesperson stressed the importance of the course: “This is a fantastic chance for anyone who wants to start officiating blind football matches to learn the ropes. Sadly there aren’t a lot of games going on right now, but we know we will be back and we will need a strong, deep pool of referees to make the matches possible. It’s a cliché but nonetheless true – the game can’t go on at any level without our dedicated officials.”

“We are committed to making the best possible use of UEFA support to expand the pool of qualified referees in Europe and maximise opportunities to train new coaches Europe-wide, and this on-line course will meet these goals. We are also delighted to be able to welcome aspiring referees from other parts of the world to join us.” 

Committee chair Ulrich Pfisterer encouraged people to sign up and said, “In these special non-contact times due to the Coronavirus, IBSA Blind Football uses this time to offer this on-line training course for new referees. This initiative will enable us to speed up the process of moving our sport forward into new developing countries.”

Refereeing Co-ordinator Mariano Travaglino is looking forward to conducting the course: “I am very happy with this new exciting opportunity to welcome more referees to join the IBSA Blind Football family. During the seminars we will learn together about the Rules of Blind Football and how referees should act during a match of this amazing sport. We will go in detail through the 18 rules, analyzing them with practical examples and videos from real matches. We will also work on referees’ placement during a match. Not only we will focus on Referee 1 and Referee 2 but also on the duties of all the other 4 referees during a game.”

Link to IBSA Blind Football rulebook 2017-2021 (Word)
Link to IBSA Blind Football rulebook 2017-2021 (PDF)

Click here to register for the course.

For more information on the course or on any aspect of refereeing blind football and partially sighted football, contact [email protected].