A busy Start to 2023 for Gibraltar’s Referees and Match Officials
Gibraltar’s Referees and match officials held their annual five-day FIFA Winter Camp, in January, on the Rock.
The Winter Camp, part of the continuous development of the Associations Refereeing Teams saw all Gibraltar Football League Match Officials taking part as well as selected other Gibraltar Referees and Referee Observers.
FIFA Referee instructor Alan Snoddy delivered technical presentations on incidents including upper body challenges, handball, persistent player misconduct and holding offences.
The five-day camp also focussed on the physical aspect of refereeing with FIFA Refereeing Fitness Instructor, Simon Berivik with YoYo/Ariet assessments, Sprint tests carried out alongside Fitness Theory and Analysis sessions.
Match situations that have arisen throughout the current season in the Gibraltar Football League were presented by the Gibraltar FA’s Refereeing Department as well as video analysis of three specifically arranged friendly matches that formed part of the camp.
This year, guest speakers featured prominently starting with Nadine Pardo-Zammitt and Siobhan Gregory who delivered a presentation on International Netball umpiring and the setup at the Gibraltar Netball Association
Current Gibraltar international, Scott Wiseman, was also a guest speaker at the camp, talking to Gibraltar’s Referees about a player’s perception of a referee and an officiating team.
Speaking about the FIFA Winter Camp, the Gibraltar FA’s Referee Manager, Adrian Bacarisa, stated:
“Once a year we take the opportunity to hold a FIFA MA Course for referees. This is the fifth time that we have held such a FIFA supported training camp which has been held either abroad or in Gibraltar. These camps provide referees, assistant referees, referee observers and selected lower category referees the opportunity to live as a team spending five days together sharing experiences and team building. The camp also exposes them to more professionalism as we work on getting our match officials to be better and minimising mistakes.
This year, a number of guest speakers took us through their own expertise providing a variety of topics increasing the knowledge and awareness of our match officials. I would also like to thank Gibraltar FAs U17 & U19 teams, FCB Magpies, Glacis Utd, Manchester 62 and Europa Point for providing teams to play friendly matches during this training camp.”
Gibraltar Match Officials FIFA Listed for 2023
Gibraltar has once again had four of its Match officials FIFA listed for 2023. The four match officials who have gained their international status are:
• Referee: Jason Barcelo
• Assistant Referees: Michael Mascias and Daniel Gomez
• Futsal Referee: Zyl Sheriff
FIFA listing means that the officials are able to officiate in International and European competitions.
All four were presented with their FIFA badges for 2023 by the Gibraltar Referees’ Committee Paul Grech and Gibraltar FA Referee Manager Adrian Bacarisa at last weekend’s Winter Camp.
International recognition is the pinnacle of every referees career and shows how much room for progression and development there is in perusing a career in refereeing in Gibraltar. Anyone interested in becoming a referee can visit www.gfarefereeing.com and start their journey in becoming either a football or Futsal Referee.
