Somalia benefits from its first ever FIFA youth refereeing course

On 9th of November 2016,

Somali Football federation concluded the first FIFA youth refereeing course to be conducted in the country under the auspice of the world football’s governing association [FIFA].

Somali football federation senior vice president, Ali Abdi Mohamed, who addressed at the closing ceremony of the course, said that the need for education is always there.

“Education and development are two things which are always important for the humans, because we are people and people must always think about their development. Somali football federation is always prioritizing education and progress and that is why development courses are held by the federation” Mr. Mohamed said before handing over the microphone to SFF president, Abdiqani Said Arab. helping Somalia football to develop despite the difficult situation in the country. “Thanks to FIFA for always giving particular considerations to our requests for development, FIFA was always and is still investing Somalia football in many ways” Somali Football Federation [SFF] president, Abdiqani Said Arab noted during his closing speech.

“As shown in our activity plans, local competitions in the country will increase by 2017. Like so, SFF is planning to increase the quality and quantity of football referees in Somalia, because to organize more competitions, we have to increase the number of our referees first and that is why we have been organizing more local and international level refereeing courses for the past two years” the president explained.

“In our football history it has never happened that two FIFA-level refereeing courses were held in Somalia within a year and we are planning to increase this again with the help from FIFA, because refereeing is a very important sector in the football industry and we are committed to developing that important sector” president Abdiqani Said Arab noted.

The president commended local Somali instructors for producing young and talented referees. “With this course, Somalia has realized two major dreams. The first one is to organize such high profile course for our young referees and the second major approach is that a Somali instructor, Ali Mohamed Ahmed, has for the first time been given the go ahead to conduct a FIFA course” SFF president Abdiqani Said Arab, said in his address.

The head instructcor was assisted by local fitness instructor and former FIFA referee Abdi Abdulle Ahmed. The course brought together some 30 young age referees from across the country and they were all awarded with their certificates except two referees who failed in fitness test.