The “Balcom BMV CUP International Youth Soccer in Hiroshima 2014” was held from Saturday 8 through Tuesday 12 August. Along with the tournament, the JFA held the Class 1 referee training program.
The J.League referees who are still inexperienced participated in the training.
Using actual match footage they worked for, participants took the training sessions including instructor’s match analysis and discussions among referees in order to improve their own skills.

* The Balcom BMV CUP International Youth Soccer in Hiroshima 2014 was the ninth annual and invited four teams this year: Olympique de Marseille U-18 (France) and Fulham FC U-18 (England) from overseas, and Hiroshima Prefecture High School Selection team and Sanfrecce Hiroshima F.C Youth from the home city.

Comments

MIKAMI Shoichiro, Class 1 Referee (Hokkaido)
The training program at the International Youth Soccer in Hiroshima 2014 was different from the regular ones. Because it had an only small-group class, we could spend more time on our own assignments and that made it a very intensive lesson. I could experience the different types of football on and off the pitch as Fulham and Marseille were participating in the tournament. We had time to hang out together in such a small group outside of the training sessions and had opportunities to talk about football and refereeing. Even though some part of the program (match observation) was amended due to the typhoon, it turned out to be an good opportunity to discuss football and refereeing with people from the referee training centre in the Chugoku region and match referees in charge of matches on those days.
While feeling, thinking and talking about football and refereeing at the training program, I could further deepen the understanding of “what football is like and what a referee is like.” I will take advantage of what I learned today and try to work better on match management.

SATO Yuichi, Class 1 Referee (Hokkaido)
In the four-day training program, there were concerns of typhoon coming up. We were given assignments, “when you referee, you don’t try just to cooperate, but you also should aim to care for others and to help out each other,” and “you should be aware of your call accuracy, coordination and the fact that you are being watched by others. And you should differentiate the on-off switches inside of you so you can enhance the quality of second referee’s tasks.” The matches were what international competition is like, and there were lots of intense and tough plays. Meanwhile, players didn’t get brought down and continued to concentrate on the match with fair plays. And they threw themselves into the match after accepting our referee team’s standard. That was very impressive.
I found what I needed to improve in particular was the language skill. Under the spirit of caring others and helping each other, referees tried to have active communications in English so that the matches proceeded smoothly. But I strongly felt that I need to immediately gain such English skill to expand the scope of football. I’m grateful to be given an assignment to work on the improvement. And I will be responsible for not only refereeing itself but also acting and behaving as a referee, and then will step forward day by day.