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Week 11 has been the quietest of all weeks perhaps. Preparing to take another trip to Dubai, I phoned in to the Football Association’s Referee Department to ensure I completed my fitness test requirements prior to departing. Luckily I just had to delay my flight by just one day to accommodate the requirement. Feels so fancy saying this with flights and fitness tests and all. A lot of early mornings for team training as well. I’ve been observing a lot and taking photos to keep for the team. Definitely an interesting perspective to Futsal in coaching. More to come in the coming weeks and this is the only break I get from work at this point. A referee meeting on Week 11 Friday to discuss play-offs for the university Futsal league as...

Found the picture below on Twitter about 10 rules of football as a kid. I have good memories about playing football when I was young. I played a lot. There was always some time left to play football. On the … Continue reading → Continue reading...

A great exercise manual on how to train and keep fit sponsored by FIFA. http://f-marc.com/11plus/home/ This is something definitely very useful for players and referees in preventing injuries. Here’s a direct link to their manual and videos. Worth a read! Continue reading...

I stumbled upon the following clip from JMGA. http://www.garcia-aranda.com/eng/?p=3286 http://www.garcia-aranda.com/eng/?p=3293 This was definitely a steal of a clip to finally support the elusive DOGSO-F IDFK. Training Ran again after a while on Friday morning. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/441693984 According to the training effect, 4.8, apparently I needed a few days rest because I was near Overreaching in my training but the run certainly didn’t feel worse or more strenuous than the last time. I didn’t feel particularly sore other than lightly on my hamstring and calves. I’ve noticed those muscles have really strengthened since training somewhat regularly and hope to feel the rewards in the outdoor season. Teaching...

So the weeks are just blowing by like the pages of a book. Friday I didn’t end up going running on the day of my last post. The track was closed so instead we went for breakfast. Sometimes I say ‘we’ randomly. I usually associate it with the activity I am doing meaning either my co-ref in the game or my training partner for running. We might have been counter-destructive to training with breakfast but that’s a secret. I wrapped up expenses for last season having paid for my assessments during the upgrade on the Friday. I also pulled up the pile of expense receipts for refereeing for the past month. I have a system of highlighting in pink, all the items and costs and in yellow, the date of the transaction so look-up later is much...

Run I managed to try out the Interval testing feature on my Garmin and loved it. It was time-based since Satellite locating doesn’t work indoors so I ran the 30/40 interval with my training partner. It was, of course, exactly what I needed with the High Intensity test. Out of nowhere, a chest/throat infection showed up for me a few days earlier and I was recovering but it had been a while since my last training run that I decided to run nevertheless. You can see my run stats here. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/434892961 I couldn’t help but burst out laughing when I saw the percentage analysis on my heart rate saying I went over 100%. It certainly felt that way with my cold because my throat felt like it had a coin inside it...

I think this past week has to be the busiest week of all time for refereeing off the field/court. Considering that I hardly officiated, it makes it all the more odd that I was this intensely busy. I expect this to perhaps be one of the longest posts I have ever written; hence the long delay in getting it up. How about this pic from Refsworld. Looks like he’s really taking a poke at us! I had a good chuckle off this one. I mean HAHA. It may well be the case given the Day After Tomorrow-like weather we had in Week 2. On the bright side of that, only our winter jackets, gloves and scarves would have to match to ref! Then again players could start defending the goal by building walls of snow. Forget walls for free kicks. Unsporting...

One of my match incidents from Week 10 Sunday deserves a post of its own because the argument rolls on and not to mention that it ruined my whole day. Deliberately Handling the Ball Scenario A defender is four metres from the top of the penalty area and in possession of the ball. The concentration of players were in that half (Futsal). The defender attempted to clear the ball and pulled his leg back for the clearance. Meanwhile an attacker quickly stole possession of the ball but the defender was slow to react and kicked to attempt to get the ball but missed. He instead kicked the attacking player on his heel. The attacker fell down in a heap with a yell. The referees didn’t react and allowed play to continue. The ball was...

In the past few weeks I have had my fair share of High Intensity (HI) training. I don’t mean High Intensity fitness. I mean High Intensity workload! Two sets of Sundays in this post and the first one was eager anticipation given that I had been on a break. It was a lot of fun but I had a lot of trouble practicing the new execution of the direct free kick signal. The problem is that both hands are raised from normal position to something different so sometimes I criss-cross and forget which hand to point with and which hand needs to point to the ground in the heat of the moment. Also a small pause between the signal and stepping onto the court to administer the restart that players may have found slightly difficult to deal with...

I guess I was on a bit of a sabbatical from refereeing because I took just over three weeks off from appointments. I had to get my hand X-rayed from an earlier wrist injury and the weather was far from warming for the spring. 50+cm of snow that day that I trudged through to get to the clinic. Earlier in the week, I made a visit to Toronto and some familiar scenes from what was normal a year ago for me. A blast from the past. Usual Morning Pre-Game Stop Usual Pre-Game Double Chocolate Donut Of course I had to re-live it by getting the donut. Meanwhile, I decided to start blogging now and then about real world incidents and I start off with the Euro Futsal finals on the ThirdBlindMouse blog! See The Final’s Second Touch...

I must start this post with this fantastic video on some football fans. Futsal Also my Futsal league received some advertising from Futsal_Focus in England and it was nice to see it featured. University of Waterloo,Canada #Futsal league 2nd season started with over 1000 players facebook.com/FutsalF #Soccer http://t.co/ogYGIdvR9W— Futsal Focus (@Futsal_Focus) February 14, 2014 It has been a privilege to be part of such a major movement in Futsal in the region and to see so many participants’ lives affected along with their mindset of the game and their development. There’s a great degree of satisfaction in hearing other players wanting to play Futsal instead of Indoor “Soccer” especially when it’s not even part of the league...

Very interesting game situation in this German Bundesliga game. What would you decide: Goal? Yellow or red card? Or would you whistle for offside? You might think why offside? Have a look at the replay at the end of the … Continue reading → Continue reading...

Fair Play hero Aaron Hunt was the talk of the Bundesliga last weekend. He tripped in the opponent’s penalty area, the referee whistles for a foul, but he rejects the penalty. “I told him that I’d actually contrived it slightly. … Continue reading → Continue reading...

“Refereeing in Greece is sometimes an extreme sport”, says Thalia Mitsi in an interview with this refereeing blog. The Greek referee will use that experiences during the 2014 Algarve Cup. The tournament in Portugal which has just started is important … Continue reading → Continue reading...

You had enough of refereeing football matches? But want to be involved in a sport as match official? Become a rowing referee. Just stumbled upon this promo video from the US rowing organisation. Refereeing matches on a boat in the … Continue reading → Continue reading...

The story of Saime Akar is the story of how a woman from conservative southeast Turkey became the first professional referee from her region. The 25-year-old referee is ambitious and wants to reach the Turkish Super League as a referee. … Continue reading → Continue reading...

Uefa considering move to let TV audiences listen to player conversations with referee, says Mail Online. A Uefa spokesperson told the newspaper nothing has been confirmed yet. “This is an idea which has been discussed, but nothing has been planned … Continue reading → Continue reading...

It took Wendy Fisher from the Cayman Islands only four years to become an international referee. She’ll be heading to Portugal for the Algarve Cup later this week. “I expect to gain a lot of experience in the internationals scene, … Continue reading → Continue reading...

Feyenoord captain Graziano Pelle went nuts after his team didn’t win against FC Twente. He was very unhappy with the referee’s decisions and made a scene when he walked to the dressing room. What do you think of his behaviour … Continue reading → Continue reading...

There were some hilarious situations during the Olympic Games in Russia. Unexpected winners, missing roads and unfinished hotel rooms. Here’s a blog post with what referees can learn from Sochi 2014. Be fully prepared The winter Olympics has proven that … Continue reading → Continue reading...