The Malta FA, through its Referees Department, recently held a half-day seminar for referees’ talents and mentors at the MFA Technical Centre in Ta’ Qali.
This was the second seminar intended for talents and their mentors who are now in the second year of their programme.
The first, held last January, was conducted by Jorn West Larsen, a Danish UEFA Convention spe-cialist and CORE coach.
In his introduction, Victor Mintoff, the Talent and Mentor Programme co-ordinator, outlined the objectives of this initiative.
He said that the selected candidates, not exceeding the age of 32, were put under the guidance of a mentor who was himself a former referee or assistant referee.
Not more than four talents from each category were chosen to ensure that each received indi-vidual attention.
Adrian Casha, the director of refereeing, delivered a pre-sentation entitled ‘What is mentoring?’
Casha explained that the mentor’s main task is to help referees improve their skills by trying to pinpoint and reinforce their positive points and also identify aspects that needed improving.
“The mentor should be critical in order to push the talents to reach their maximum level,” Casha said.
“The talents, on their part, should be active and open-minded and must keep regular contact with their mentor to discuss specific matters that can help them in their development.”
Alexander Arena, recruitment and retention officer, lectured about personality, which is of utmost importance, not only on the field of play but also off it.
‘The way to the top and to stay there’ was the topic of the talk delivered by FIFA referee Alan Mario Sant.
He emphasised the importance of setting achievable targets and work hard to reach them.
A video analysis of match situations followed.
Feedback
Kevin Azzopardi, the first Maltese referee to attend the UEFA CORE programme, also addressed those present for the seminar.
Among other things, he said a talent expects to receive continuous feedback and advice on areas that both he and his mentor feel he must improve upon.
In his closing lecture, Mintoff quoted former England referee David Elleray who said: “A talent doesn’t mean that you have achieved something, it means we think that you have the possibility to achieve something.”
Thus, Mintoff said, mentors expect that talents make the most of their potential.
• Last weekend, Malta’s CORE participants, namely, referee Fyodor Zammit and assistant referees Luke Portelli and Emanuel Grech, were appointed by UEFA to officiate the Swiss second division league match between FC Vernier and FC Sierre.