Shark Dive
Five of our brave (stupid) referees managed to raise an impressive £2,000 for the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice after diving with sharks!. Alan McFadyen, Martin McGuinness, Alan Mulvanny, Stevie Mitchell and Jim McCunnie took part in the event to raise money for the charity.
The guys will present the cheque to the Hospice later this month after completing the challenge at Deep Sea World, North Queensferry.
Organiser Stevie Mitchell said: "It's important we give something back as an association and having looked into a few options I thought this was a good way to kick off. It didn't take me long to get a few volunteers and all of the guys thoroughly enjoyed it.
"We are delighted to have raised so much money and we are looking forward to getting involved in further events in the year ahead to raise even more money for a worthy cause."
Core Update from Mulvanny
What an experience CORE was like being a professional Assistant Referee for 10 days!
There was 7 other referee teams on the course from Jordan, Germany, Greece, Croatia, Russia Finland & Albania and the camaraderie between all the officials was excellent.
The course was very intensive with a full programme each day mixed with presentations from David Elleray & Jaap Ullenberg, training, practical exercises, bicycle runs and even managed to fit in some free time.
On arrival at the course we were met by a physiotherapist who carried out various checks and also a team of 3 doctors who also carried out various medical assessments. This was to make sure that all officials present on the course were in good health.
Each team of officials were allocated a coach ours being former FIFA Official Gerard Perry (Republic of Ireland)he will have a valuable input into much of what we do, not only for this week, but also as part of regular contact during the 6 months until we return to Nyon for the consolidation course late August.
We had several training sessions, including a practical session on “decision making close to the penalty area” which was filmed for analysis. UEFA arranged for a local football team to create various match scenarios (free kicks/penalty kicks, offside, and mass confrontation) which allowed each trio to work together in order to deal with the incidents which then arose. Off the park, at UEFA’s HQ, there have been group discussions on what have been identified as some of the key topics for CORE (managing the re-start of play, advantage, co-operation, confrontation, serious foul challenges, body language and positioning)
A main part of the course is actually refereeing a match. We were appointed to a Fourth Division match in France on Saturday evening - Besancon Racing Club v PSG2. There were 2500 spectators in attendance and it was a great experience for us all. Gerard Perry was certainly pleased with our performances."
Each official has chosen 3 main objectives that they have to improve on for returning to the consolidation course. We have also to keep in close contact with our coach and also John Baptiste who works alongside Werner Helsen as a fitness coach, by sending data on a monthly basis from our polar watches.
It was an excellent but intensive trip but I cannot wait until I return in August.