A not so interesting flashback…
Travel began again at the start of the week and there was going to be a significant break for refereeing. In fact, I didn’t imagine anything coming up in the near future.
I’ve been more cognizant of refereeing in other countries and how referees source their equipment so I’ve been visiting sports equipment stores around. It was interesting to see the range of quality and market prices. This is truly a global game impacted by so many cultures involved with it.
The blog hasn’t been all that active as of late but it will be again on a less frequent schedule soon. It’s been a lot of hard work over the past year to get where what this blog is today so I’m pleased to announce that today is the official launch of The Top Ref store!
Visit us at www.thetopref.com.
I came into Day 4 with three goals:
This was a nerve-wracking day. They would Continue reading
I was up very late to start off the weekend. I’m not sure why but I ended up sleeping at 5am but I do remember tweeting some stuff. I set the alarm to 8am but woke up a few minutes before 9am realising I was very late!
A day’s rest that was well-used.
Soon off for my next game on Saturday. I met to carpool with a senior and highly experienced referee in my area. He was also one of my favourite assessors since he breaks down the cause and effect relationship very well. It’s clear to see what I need to work on to resolve issues I have in the game. It goes a little beyond Continue reading
My interest in refereeing has spawned off several side-businesses for me. One with my expertise in computing and the next in marketing.
I’m going to focus on the latter and I hope the next couple of photos widen your eyes.
A common sight in my room:
It’s not every day you meet a FIFA official and a past education session this week had just that! A very entertaining individual, JF, briefed us on his journey through the ladder and a major recent FIFA tournament as well as being a prospective in World Cup 2014 Brazil.
A very enlightening and humorous presentation it was to be capped off by the ultimate FIFA Offside test. 25 videos in sequence of split-second offside decisions. FIFA uses this test from a pool of 200 videos to test its officials expecting a minimum passing grade of 19/25. Continue reading
I’ve done my end-of-year referee shopping and not surprisingly, none of the items are from Canada. Taxes and super high mark-ups… Pfffft. Most of it originates from Australia, Germany, UK, USA and Dubai, UAE! Now this starts me in the referee accounting books in the red for the year but only temporarily. I should be back on track by the end of the month. Hopefully… because that’s what I always say!
Anyways, here are some of the spoils!
An ITOOTR flip coin courtesy of Mike Register in Atlanta, GA! Nice momento.
intheopinionofthereferee.com Flip Coin
Refereeing the Beautiful Game 