| James Kon |
WITH the shortage in the number of football and futsal referees in the country, the National Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (NFABD) and Brunei Darussalam Referees’ Association are hoping that participants from the refereeing programme – jointly organised by NFABD and Politeknik Brunei – will be actively involved in the local leagues.
The need to increase the number of referees in football and futsal were highlighted by Awang Zulkifli bin Haji Duraman, executive member of NFABD, who is also President of Brunei Darussalam Referees’ Association, during his speech at the certificate presentation to Politeknik Brunei Darussalam students who completed the futsal and football refereeing programme yesterday afternoon.
“There is obviously a lack of referees in the country. Not many people are interested in becoming a referee because of the challenges in mental and physical fitness and knowledge of the law of the game.”
Awang Zulkifli said only one participant from the previous futsal and football refereeing programme was actively involved in refereeing.
“He went on to referee the AFC U-14 Regional Festival of Football recently,” he said, adding that “there is a bright career of refereeing”.
The certificates were presented by Dennis Ho, Director of Politeknik Brunei, and Pengiran Mohd Amirrizal Pengiran Haji Mahmud, Acting General Secretary of NFABD. A total of 27 students from Politeknik Brunei took part in the programme.
The programme comprised theoretical and practical assessments.
It was facilitated by experienced local referees Mohd Tusof bin Abdullah, Mohd Yusof bin Haji Serudin, Degat Anak Chandau, Haji Dasnan bin Haji Abdul Rahman and Bakri bin Haji Bintang.
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