REFEREE'S

 
 

Football Association Match Officials Association ("FAMOA")
 

FAMOA was established by The Football Association so that it could communicate directly with its referees. All registered referees, FA qualified instructors and registered assessors are automatically members of FAMOA.

 

FAMOA publishes two or three times a year jointly with the Referees’ Association of England a newsletter called “Refereeing”, which is sent directly to all members.

 

All members should also receive directly from FAMOA a form for completion to apply for a Record of Achievement and to enter its “Incentive Scheme”, under which refereeing activities are recognised by the provision of items of free kit, “England" merchandise, etc.
 

All active referees who were qualified when FAMOA was formed and all referees who qualified subsequently (provided that they apply for a Record of Achievement) should also receive a FAMOA "Three Lions" Referee’s Badge.
 

Please e-mail The Football Association at famoa@thefa.com or telephone it on 020 7745 4651 if you have any queries about FAMOA.
 
London FA organises on behalf of FAMOA annual “Referee Development Evenings”. Events so far have been held at Arsenal FC, West Ham United FC and Fulham FC. The Guest Speakers have been Premier League referees Chris Foy, Rob Styles and Mike Riley respectively. Tours of the ground have taken place at each venue. Admission is always free but by ticket only. Details of future events will appear on this page as soon as they have been confirmed. All members of FAMOA are encouraged to attend these events and can use the form at the foot of this page to apply for tickets once details of the dates, times and venues are shown on this page. A report on the most recent event is given below.
MIKE RILEY EXCELS AT FULHAM
The 2008 London FA FAMOA Development Evening was held at Fulham FC in October, when the main speaker was Premier League referee Mike Riley. He outlined how the FA’s “Respect Programme” operates in the professional game and linked that initiative with advice on steps that can be taken by referees at all levels (through good positioning, accurate recognition of offences and appropriate punishment) to deal with the key challenges of brutal play, confrontation and simulation. His talk was extremely well received. A total of 90 people attended the event and 46 feedback forms were received. Of those, 42 rated Mike’s presentation as “Very Interesting” and 4 as “Interesting”. The specific comments added were:-
“I learnt a lot from this event”, “Excellent evening”, “Covered very good helpful subjects”, “Thought Mike’s combination of advice, personal experience and clips was excellent”, “Very informative”, “Very good session”, “Although the videos were of a higher level it provided good information for grassroots”, “Lots of good practical advice”, “Very good and related to grassroots”, “Well prepared, well presented, excellent videos and entertaining”, “I really enjoyed every bit of what Mike said: it is really going to help me with this hobby”, “Very enjoyable”, “Learnt a lot from his talk and experience”, “Enjoyable: well worth coming to”, “Very well presented”, “Good presentation: very interesting - a wonderful evening and I can’t wait for the next one”, “I hope we have him again”, “He is a great referee, like the way he talks” and “Very good and entertaining”.

Ed Stone opened the meeting and achieved ratings of “Very Interesting (10)”, “Interesting (22)”, “Useful (10)” and “Of No Use (1)”. The comments were:- 
“Important things put across”, “Informative”, “Apart from providing welcome did not add much value”, “Important and useful” and “Excellent”.

Adrian Shorter’s session on “The Respect Programme at Grassroots Level” was rated as “Very Interesting (25)”, “Interesting (17)” and “Useful (2)”, with comments of:- 
“Put forward very well and interesting”, “Informative”, “Power point screen too low”, “Good presentation and useful information”, “Without respect we cannot enjoy the game”, “Excellent”, “Should include T.V. presenters/pundits in code of conduct” and “Hope it will be taken on board”.

The venue itself attracted ratings of “Excellent (17)”, “Very Good (14)”, “Good (12)” and “Acceptable (3)”. The comments were:-
“Very good order”, “Venue too far away: somewhere more central London would be better”, “A bit small”, “Screen too low”, “It’s a good idea to use Craven Cottage”, “Easy to reach”, “No food”, “Fantastic surroundings: great view of the river - most calming”, “Very hospitable”, “Very nice and pleasant settings” and “The room could have been utilised better as the posts obstructed the view”.

The stadium tour was rated by the people who went on it as “Excellent (20)”, “Very Good (13)” and “Good (6)”. The comments were:-
“Tour guide very informative of the venue”, “Good knowledge and informative”, “It’s an eye opener well worth doing”, “I saw things that I did not expect to see”, “Zoe was very polite and helpful” and “Highly informative”.

The overall response was extremely positive, as it was following the previous events organised by London FA when other Premier League referees, Chris Foy and Rob Styles, were the headline speakers at Arsenal FC and West Ham United FC respectively.