The Football Federation of American Samoa welcomed a new influx of qualified Referees and Assistant Referee after the completion of the FIFA/FFAS MA Referees Follow Up Course 2009 at Pago Park Soccer Stadium from 25-29 August.

The course was conducted by FIFA Referee Instructor Neil Poloso of the Solomon Islands, FIFA/OFC Fitness Trainer Kader Touati of Tahiti as well as FIFA/OFC Referee Development Officer Massimo Raveino of Tahiti and the participants were handed certificates of participation at the ending of the course.

Raveino told the thirty one participants that they would receive an official referee’s certificate at the end of this year.

FFAS Referee Instructors Uinialiva Fareti and Lemusa Alatasi both held practical and theoretical instruction sessions with Fareti overseeing the corner kick tuition while Alatasi took the throw-in lessons.

There were thirteen newcomers and sixteen returnees from the 2008 referee and assistant referee course and all underwent a stringent fitness test.

Eleven men passed the test, which fitness instructor Touati described as the best pass rate of all the Pacific Islands they’ve been to so far. 

On the final day of the course all the referees were assessed by Raveino, Poloso and the MA Instructors Alatasi and Fareti during their officiating at various FFAS men’s National League games.

Helpful tips were provided to the referees during game’s halftime breaks as well as at the end of the matches before the course finally concluded with the handing out of certificates of participation signed by FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter and FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke.

The course came just in time as the Department of Education kicked off its 2009-2010 Elementary Soccer Competition with games held at two sites, Pago Park Soccer Stadium and Kananafou.

With this unprecedented number of participating referees, the FFAS was able to have enough match officials to officiate the games.

Another significant positive for the development of FFAS is that the majority of the participants are young, with three still in high school and six attending college.  The rest are in their early, or mid, twenties.

The FFAS Executive Committee was on hand during the closing ceremony with President Iuli Alex Godinet thanking all for participating in the course. He extolled them to continue being a referee and to officiate with good judgment and fairness.

Courtesy of FFAS Media