NMIFA hosts referee clinics

 Northern Mariana Islands Football Association is hosting a series of referee clinics in time for its fall league this month and future competitions.

The clinics are for referees and assistant referees and will cover both theoretical and practical sessions. The certified basic referees clinic already started last night at the NMIFA office at the TSL Plaza in Garapan. The theoretical portion of the clinic will continue tonight from 6pm to 8pm, also at the NMIFA office. Then tomorrow, it will be a whole day session for participants, from 8am to 4pm. The Saturday session will cover pitch lessons.

The last two sessions of the clinic for certified referees will take place on Sept. 8 and 10. The fourth session will run from 6pm to 8pm at the NMIFA office, while the Sept. 10 event is divided into two parts with the field training set from 8am to 11am and the theoretical session returning at the NMIFA office from 1pm to 4pm.

Each club is allowed to have one male and one female representative at the clinic. For each men’s squad, they can bring a maximum of two individuals.

The clinic for assistant referees will be held only for two days or on Sept. 17 and 18. The first part of the clinic will run from 6pm to 8pm at the NMIFA office, while field and office training sessions will take place from 8am to 3pm on Sept. 18. Both the men’s teams and clubs are allowed to have one representative at the clinic.

Both clinics are free and will be conducted by members and officials of the NMIFA Referee Committee.

“We expect to have 20 to 22 participants for each training course. Our fall league will begin in the latter part of September and it’ll be a great opportunity for new certified referees to practice what they have learned. Eventually after putting in the time and officiating enough games, they will move up to the competitive level. The more experience one gets, the more he or she becomes comfortable in officiating matches,” NMIFA general secretary Ed Salas said.

Salas also explained NMIFA follows three stages as far as certification of referees is concerned. First is the “certified basic referee” where individuals primarily officiate at the club level and must have a minimum experience of one season of refereeing and a positive assessment from the referee committee to advance. The next stage is the “certified assistant referee” who may help officiate games in the competitive level, such as the U15, U18, and women’s and men’s divisions based on ability. The third and last one is “certified referee 3” or those in charge of competitive level matches.

“As we continue to grow and more teams play in the competitive level, it is essential that we continue to offer these referee courses to new and experience referees to insure that we have sufficient number of referees to officiate our games,” Salas said.

“We have a very busy schedule during the course of the year and we don’t want to tax our pool of referees. When we have a large pool of qualified referees, it is much easier for the referee committee to work on the schedule of matches. NMIFA would like to thank the referee committee for conducting these courses and we hope that referee aspirants take advantage of the opportunity,” he added.