Field guide

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A FIFA referee instructors' course was held in Ismailia from 24 to 30 April. Twenty international referees from Algeria, Djibouti, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Tunisia and Egypt took part in the one-week course.

The five referees from Egypt were Mohamed Hossameddin, Mohamed Hafez, Essam Abbas Siam, Ahmed El-Shennawi and Gamal El- Ghandour. The four FIFA instructors were Neji Jouini of Tunisia, Manuel Lopez Fernandez of Spain, Fernando Treaco Gracia representing FIFA and Taha Ismail, the FIFA development officer in Cairo.

The course concept focussed on the education of member association instructors in coaching (senior, youth and women), refereeing, administration and sports medicine.

The courses used a regional format, assembling and educating instructors selected by the member associations from neighbouring countries in a centralised venue. A maximum of three instructors per member were allowed depending on the qualifications of the applicants and the size of the country. According to FIFA, relevant activity plans will be elaborated by the participating member associations with the support of FIFA. FIFA will decide on a yearly allocation of courses that seeks to touch all regions. The courses are to be held at facilities financed by FIFA.

During the one-week course, the instructors received theoretical and practical sessions. The main topics included planning for matches, travel, warming up, match report, guidelines for both referees and their assistants, positions of dead balls and different shooting techniques.

Also on the agenda: signals, offside, interfering with play, interfering with an opponent, gaining advantage, teamwork, fouls, wall distance, obvious scoring opportunities, the ball in play, use of the whistle, body language, areas of the field to avoid, mass confrontation, consultation, procedures in goals, penalty kicks, five penalty kicks, dealing with injury, player equipment, medicine and administrative matters.