FOOTBALL DEVELOPMENT

Referee Recognition

The Football Workforce awards are a way of saying ‘thank you’ to those who have contributed their time and energy to football, whether it is as a coach, an administrator, a referee or someone helping young people to access the game.

The London FA annually presents Football Workforce Awards to volunteers for their contribution to football in the London area. There are two categories of award: Volunteer and Young Volunteer (i.e. under 18 at start of the season).

Alan Hill (Volunteer) and Hannah McNamara (Young Volunteer) were selected as County winners for the 2006-2007 season and will received their awards at the London FA annual presentation evening.

Hannah was nominated by her school (Bexley Grammar School) where she volunteers training school teams for years 7-11. As well as assisting with tours abroad, Hannah helps to select and manage the teams. Her skills as a coach have already been recognised by the local company that she works for and she regularly contributes her spare hours into the development of all sports within primary schools. An asset and inspiration to her P.E. department as well as the local sporting community, Hannah was also part of the U18’s winners of the Girls Kent final. 

Alan is a volunteer who co-ordinates the examination of all referees trained by London FA, normally attending the examinations himself wherever they are held. Although this is an onerous task in itself, he goes far beyond this in his voluntary work on referee development. He is incredibly active in:-

In addition, Alan himself referees more than the average amount of games.

Alan also goes out of his way to assist with the London FA’s needs, including supporting the Development Team by recruiting and organising all the referees for the County’s Charter Standard Tournaments for clubs and schools.

Both Alan and Hannah were also nominated to the FA for consideration for a National award. We are delighted that Alan was successful in being recognised by the FA as one of five winners of the FA Football Workforce Award. As this Award is open to people working in football everywhere in the country, it is a tremendous honour for Alan to receive and deserved recognition of his outstanding work.  Alan was presented with his award at the new Wembley Stadium (see below) during the FA Community Shield match between Manchester Utd and Chelsea on Sunday 5th August 2007.

Andy Porter of the London FA said ‘Alan Hill’s contribution goes way beyond the call of duty: he has effectively done the work of many people. Many referees and football in general owe an awful lot to Alan for his work.’