Participants and officials of the FIFA referees and assistants course sitting for a group photo at the National Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (NFABD) headquarters along Jalan Pusat Persidangan in Berakas yesterday. BT/Ak Fauzi Pg Salleh
Participants from nine countries are sitting for a five-day course for newly registered FIFA referees and assistants at the National Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (NFABD) headquarters.
Organised by world football governing body FIFA with the help of ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and NFABD, the course started yesterday and will conclude on Sunday.
Apart from hosts Brunei, Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam have also sent representatives to the course.
"It is a great honour for NFABD to be chosen to conduct this event for the very first time here in Brunei, and I would like to thank FIFA and AFF for giving NFABD the responsibility and trust to handle this course," said NFABD's newly appointed general secretary Hj Muhd Zamri Dato Paduka Hj Hamdani in his speech yesterday.
"It gives me great pleasure to welcome all of the participants. Altogether we have 32 participants taking part and today's course is attended by two recognised FIFA instructors from Malaysia.
"During the running of this course, I hope that all participants will gain a lot of essential knowledge as well as establish a good relationship and share experiences with each other from different countries,"
"I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to the organisers, especially the referee department (officers) from NFABD, and in particular our honourable instructors Muhd Razali Yaakub, FIFA Development Officer and Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh, the FIFA Referee Committee Stand, and all the participants for making this course possible," added Hj Muhd Zamri, who took up the general secretary post last Saturday.
Throughout the course, all the participants will be taught a number of topics on refereeing, among them serious foul play and violent conduct, management of penalties and free-kicks, offside, advantage, handball, simulation and celebration of goals.
"We are very happy and fortunate to be given this chance to follow the course and we will take this opportunity to learn as much knowledge and skill as we can from the FIFA instructors," said Noorizam Zakaria, one of the five referees from Brunei.
"I hope that after this course we will be ready to accept any proposal to officiate international football matches in the future," he added.
