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2017/18 Talent & Mentor Programme launched with Cologne seminar

Published: 10-08-2017 07:15
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The Talent & Mentor Programme for the next two years was launched overseas during a seminar held in Cologne, Germany.  On Saturday 29th July, a group of 15 referees and assistant referees, together with six administrators, left Malta for Dusseldorf from where they proceeded to the Sportschule Hennef Sports Complex. Directors of Refereeing Kevin Azzopardi (MFA) and Ivan Mrkalj (German host) opened the seminar, after which the former delivered a presentation entitled 'It’s a matter of attitude'. This was followed by Andrè Arciola’s practical session on Concentration and Awareness. On the other days of the seminar, the participants took part in a series of activities: former referee Marco Borg conducted a video test on match situations and explained the answers; a tour to Cologne Stadium; a team-building session at Kletterwald Hennef, a guide-through of Sportschule Hennef and a nightwalk through the city of Cologne. Ivan Mrkalj discussed Types of player – how to deal with them?, Dr. Jan F. Orth spoke about German Football and the Referee System while Alexander Feuerherdt went through curiosities of the laws and rules. Early-morning training sessions were overseen by Adrian Azzopardi. The Maltese match officials controlled two friendly matches, playedf on Sunday, 30th July. These were assessed by German referee coaches as follows: FC Pesch vs VFB Solingen 4-0 (Daniel Portelli – referee, Ivan Galea and Robert Curtis) and SpVg Flittard vs GW Brauweiler 5-3 (Shaun Calleja – referee, Duncan Spencer and William Zerafa). Kevin Azzopardi and Adrian Azzopardi tested participants on English proficiency, Roberto Buontempo's contribution focused onManagement & Body Language and Stephen Mallia carried out the Match Analysis with the participation of referee observers.