Referees from East train to become better Referees

When we watch a football match, we hardly bother to see who the referee is because we remain focused on the players and the match. Fact is behind every successful match, the role of a referee is of great importance to help the match come out into the ones that the crowd enjoys.

Keeping this in mind and for the betterment of referees, a refereeing course is being provided to some 30 referees from the eastern regions. It is organized by the Bhutan Football Federation (BFF) in Samdrup Jongkhar.

Referees across the eastern region are clubbed together for training and the participants comprises mostly school coaches, teachers, local referees and so on.

Instructor of the program, Gagan Rai said the reason for conducting the trainings specifically for the referees from the east is because not much training has been given to them unlike in western regions.

“It is an opportunity given to the regional referees to get some knowledge through the training and become good referees,” he said.

The referees will be taught theory as well as practical lessons in the six day course and later they will be tested through physical fitness tests and theory exams.

Learning also includes conducting a match where one has to be a referee while others will be observers to judge his performances. And at the end with the feedbacks and suggestions (if it is required) it will bring improvements for the referee.

Participants will also study through video clips by which they will learn to identify flaws.

A participant from Bidoong Lower Secondary School (LSS) in Trashigang, Lhendup Dorji considers himself lucky to get an opportunity to attend the training which is conducted for the first time in the east and he is pretty much excited to learn something different and gain more knowledge out of it.

“People find it easy to be a referee but it is not,” he said adding that people tend to criticize a lot for being a bad referee.

He said the knowledge gained through the training will be of immense benefit and later he can make use of the knowledge. “I want to make use of it during sports day in school as well as in Dzongkhag level as well as during Regional sports meet back in my School,” he said.

Like him, many felt the same way and felt the need to update themselves.

Instructor Gagan Rai said compared to referees from the western region, referees from the east are least exposed and they are not aware of new changes and law of the games.

He said only attending to training won’t work out but “It is more about implementation, which means practically in the field”.

The on-going training is being conducted at Samdrup Jongkhar Middle Secondary School (MSS) and it is funded by BFF.