Sierra Leone Football Association has on 29th June 2022 climaxed the MA course for female and Junior male Referees across the country; the training took place at the Sierra Leone Football Association Secretariat, Kingtom in Freetown.
Ali Mohamed Ahmed the FIFA Technical instructor from Somalia said he was happy to be in Sierra Leone to train another set of prospects for Sierra Leone Referees, the five days training has been a tedious one for the female and male Junior Referees and their cooperation has been great throughout the course.
He affirmed that these sets of referees are the future of Sierra Leone Football, but they have a long way to go. He called on the participants to make good use of what they have learnt and empower them in their Profession in Refereeing. He thanked Sierra Leone Football Association for providing the platform and called them to give more support to the Referee’s department because for now, they have the best instructors in Africa who can help train the young referees in the country.
Alieu Badara Tarawallie the Vice President 2 of the Sierra Leone Football Association said as a football federation they are pleased to have a set of female and Junior Referees to have gone through a trained by FIFA Technical instructors and Physical Assessors. He congratulated the participants, and thanked the referee’s department and the FIFA instructors who have proved that Sierra Leone now has the best instructors. He called on the referees that you have age on their side that they need to work on it and see that you are at their best at all times when they are out there doing their job.
He said to the female and Junior Referees that “As a Football Federation in consultation with the referee’s department, we are going to have a Promotion and demotion for referees when we kick start our domestic league in the Country and if a referee underperformed you are going to be demoted, even if you are a FIFA badge Referees your badge will be strip off from you.”
“With you, we can have a beautiful game; again we can have a rough game,” Tarawallie said.
Alhaji Rashid the Chairman of the Referees federation in Sierra Leone thanked the experts from FIFA who have taken their time and efforts to train the young prospects of Sierra Leone Football with good future for football in the country and thanked the football federation for their support throughout the training.
Mohamed Bowen Freeman the referee’s manager at the Sierra Leone Football Association said the training will bring positive changes in the referee’s department, and they are pleased to have the two experts from FIFA to impact professionalism in them.
Precious Amara a FIFA badge said she feels grateful to have gone through such training from the experts, her colleagues have learnt a lot on key areas they have problems with and the expert have touched on the areas such as Penalty taking, Off-sides when players play fouls within the (18) yard box and lots more.
“We thank the Football Association, the referee’s department for creating the platform for us and we are going to put this training into practice,” she said.
A certificate of Merit was given to all the female and male junior referees who took part in the five days training. The two experts from FIFA were given two sets of Umbro Jersey as a gift from the football federation.
