The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) wrapped up its annual FIFA Member Association Refereeing Course on Friday, with 17 match officials receiving certificates of attendance for the country’s first in-person FIFA football development program since 2019.
The course, which updates referees on the latest changes to the Laws of the Game and provides elite guidance for officiating matches, was led by FIFA Referee Development Officer Javier Santos, FIFA Referee Instructor Peter Prendergast and FIFA Fitness Instructor Alan Brown, as well as GFF Referee Instructors Ingram Johnson and Sherwin Moore.
According to a press release, GFF President Wayne Forde congratulated the group for completing the top-level training course, as the Federation accelerates its plans for the safe and structured return of play in the coming months once permission is granted by the authorities.
“I’ve received only positive feedback from our Head of Refereeing Dion Inniss about your performance this week,” Forde told participants.
“We are extremely proud of the dedication of this group of match officials, which is now well equipped to ensure the return to competitions will be well managed on the field of play.” With just three female participants in the course group, including FIFA Referee Maurees Skeete, Forde called on the GFF’s regional associations and football community to seek out and encourage more women to sign up to train as match officials.
“We have so much planned for women’s football in the coming months and years, and we really want to see more female referees as part of that evolution,” he said.“I would like to personally encourage more women to join us on this journey as we develop football for all.”
Inniss, who also serves on the GFF Executive Committee, urged all the participants to maintain the levels of peak performance, decision-making and fitness they had achieved during five days of intensive theoretical and practical sessions at the GFF National Training Centre in Providence, East Bank Demerara.
“Many times after these courses, you are highly motivated and at your peak, and then after a few weeks and months later, you can get demotivated and be back to where you were, my hope is that – this time around – that is not the case,” he said.
The FIFA course is the second refereeing program that the GFF has organised for its match officials this month, following on from a three-day seminar led by Guyanese-born Dianne Ferreira-James, a Concacaf Elite Assessor and Head of Refereeing for the Bahamas Football Association. (GFF)
