In Hiroshima, many youth referees are involved in the operations of tournaments as director. “Prince Takamado Trophy U-18 Soccer League, Hi FA Advance League(Youth League Class 1 to 4)” hosted by the prefecture, the prefectural and regional tournament hosted by Soccer Section of Hiroshima High School Athletic Federation. We have many youth referees and we suggest them to not only take the qualifications but also give them opportunity to actually participate as a referee in the official game.

There were many exciting games in “2014 Hiroshima High School New Comers championship / the 7th Junior High School New Comers Tournament, Hiroshima Qualifiers” held on Sat. 10 January to Sun. 1 February. Many youth referees were assigned to the first round to quarter-final matches and demonstrated their referee skills in the tournament. Soccer section of Hiroshima High School Athletic Federation has a vision of “Self-managed operation” and work on to carry out the tournament operation smoothly.

Oranaizers and Participant Comments

OKIMOTO Chikahiro, Soccer Section Chairman of Hiroshima High School Athletic Federation
Anticipating facing the shortage and ageing of referees soon, we have been working on to train up youth referees for ten years now. Especially we made it entry requirement for the club to register at least two referees when launching the league. This, in turn, helped creating an opportunity for those referees used to end their referee career after acquiring referee qualifications, to train them up to take part as a referee and decided to proactively assign them. It was necessary to get all the supports from those have something to do with soccer to make it happen and we particularly focused on changing the coaches’ perception. As a result, youth referees were able to get involved in the tournament operation aggressively. Recently, some students try to take class 3 referee qualifications while in the school and some were trained up to even try to take class 2 referee qualifications after the graduation.

And all the clubs and coaches are positive about assigning youth referees in the official matches. It is true a lot of issues such as renewing registration still remain but we are fully committed to deal with brushing up refereeing skills, training up referees and assigning youth referees.

OKIMOTO Chikahiro, Referee Section Chairman of Hiroshima High School Athletic Federation
Hiroshima federation had assigned youth referees in U-18 Youth League and other official tournaments games before and we assigned eight referees, 153 assistant referees (total man hours) to 63 games of first round to quarter-finals in this tournament. I watched around ten games judged by youth referees and found them trying to make a right judgment. Talking about an assistant referee, they made a right judgment in right position for watching players’ offside position and kept close look on GK who did a punt kick near the line of penalty area. One of assistant referees was careful enough to stand in front of the ball placed in the corner to send signal of substitution.

They were assigned to games up to quarter-finals this time but I am sure some youth referees are quite skillful who should be able to be a referee of games of semi-finals onwards. The quality and standards of refereeing were getting better without doubt reflecting what they had learned at the seminar and the experience of regular referee activities and these are all thanks to the instructions given by the club. With more referee experiences, we are going to keep on working on our programs for youth referee to be able to be a referee and assistant referee in the game.

SHINCHO Yuta, Class 3 Referee (Hiroshima Kanon High School, Sophomore)
Since I started as youth referee in the official tournament in last year and I was responsible for five games in the high school new comer’s tournament. I am in the position of getting advice from referee instructor regularly for example I received advice following the fourth round game I was in charge of. There are training center sessions for referees three times in a year in Hiroshima, for which anyone can join. The instructor gives us tips on how to get promoted to S3 from S4 and practical referee advice to youth referees usually we don’t have a chance to learn. We tend to handle the game with high school trio in official matches so those training represent excellent opportunity to upgrade standard of youth referees as a whole. The quality of youth referees has been getting better year by year and more high school referees are capable of making a calm and stable judgment throughout the game.

In the future, I want to work on to handle the game by youth referees to making players and staff feeling at ease and present attractiveness of football to spectators. I would just like to extend my thanks for giving me chance to play football and committed to work on to upgrade skills of youth referees.