Four new Staff members

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Tournaments Abroad is happy to announce the appointment of four new staff members.

John D’Arcy of England will be Tournaments Abroad’s new Observers coordinator. In his position, he will be responsible for the selection and appointment of all referee observers and assessors to all events in our network. He will also work on standardising all the TA competitions in relation to the observers and the support offered to referees.

John has been involved in Refereeing for over 30 years and works for the English County FA of Kent. In his active days John was fortunate to have officiated on the FA Premier League, Football League as well as the Contributory Leagues in the late 90’s. He is currently the co-ordinator for the Kent FA Advanced CORE which manages referees at Level 4 and is also a FA Match Observer. John is also the Referees Officer of one the UK’s largest youth competitions with over 100 officials appointed every weekend. Recently John has been awarded an ‘Outstanding Contribution Award to Refereeing’ by the Kent FA.
Fabrice Foures of Nimes, France is the new coordinator for Tournaments Abroad in France. Having participated to the Ibercup Cascais and the Paris World Cup previously, where he led the French referee groups, he will now be coordinator for the selection and appointment of all French officials to TA competitions. This will guarantee that all referees from France are properly vetted and selected according to their ability levels for all of our tournaments. Also, he will be the main point of contact for French referees who need more information about Tournaments Abroad or any of our events.
Mick Brants of the Netherlands will instead take over as the new Referee Administration Officer. In this newly created position, he will be responsible for taking care of all admin work before the start of the tournament season. This includes but is not limited to checking the paperwork provided by the referees (letters of permissions from the FA, child protection certificates etc.), and that referees follow and respect processes and deadlines to officialise their participation to the tournaments they’ve been accepted for. He will also act, when needed, as staff member during some of TA’s summer tournaments.
Craig Napier of Glasgow, Scotland has instead been appointed as the new TA Pre-Academy Coordinator. In this role he will oversee all activities of the Pre-Academy such as the selection of the referees, the running of all referee operations during the Pre-Academy tournament and so on. Craig, a veteran of Tournaments Abroad with whom he has attended more than 10 different events in the past few years, is a Level 1 (National) referee in Scotland, where he officiates in the Football League and performs board duties (4th official) in the Premier League.

New Record of Applications for the TA Referee Academy!

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The application process for the 2nd edition of the TA Referee Academy, Europe’s newest referee development project, has just recently opened and Tournaments Abroad are proud to announce that it has reached a new record number of applicants, but also a record number of countries represented by the young officials who have signed up for the selection process.

The program, which will give to 24 “lucky” up-and-coming officials the possibility of attending international summer tournaments while being coached and trained by UEFA, FIFA and Premier League officials and observers, has been praised by many as a great opportunity for the young referees who are looking to develop further.

A total of 168 referees have applies so far, coming from 32 different nations.

Almost every European country (except Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Estonia and a couple smaller nations) is represented by at least one match officials, with few exceptions. The three most represented nations are England with 31 applicants, Germany with 23 and Scotland with 10. This year we also welcome applicants from the USA, Canada and Australia.

Want to read more about the TA Referee Academy or apply, then visit this link.

Here’s a map of the countries (UEFA) represented so far.

First Tournament in China!

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Tournaments Abroad is happy to announce the agreement with Gothia Cup China, China’s and Asia’s biggest youth football tournament.

TA’s President Daniele Curcio visited China last week where he met with the directors of the tournament, as well as the people responsible for referees, and has therefore agreed to a partnership between Tournaments Abroad the tournament’s organizing committee which will start with the 2018 edition.

“Gothia Cup China is Asia’s most important youth soccer tournament with over 300 teams coming from 30 different countries taking part every year”, said Mr. Curcio. “We’re proud to be part of the Gothia Cup China’s family and I’m impressed by the plans put forward by the tournament’s directors who aim at increasing the quality and prestige of their event by attracting more and more international referees over the years. I’m also very proud that they have chosen Tournaments Abroad to help them in their quest”, he added.

“With this partnership Gothia Cup China and Tournaments Abroad will work together. We’re looking forward to making a difference, thanks to Daniele Curcio and TA”, said Mr. Jeff Wu, tournament director.

Daniele Curcio has also agreed to becoming the tournament’s international referees coordinator, and will work in close contact with the tournament’s referee director Mr. Zhang to select, evaluate and assign all international referees.

The Gothia Cup 2018 takes place August 13th-19th in Shenyang, China.

You can already apply and read more about this great new tournament on the dedicated page.

Partnership with the CONIFA World Cup 2018

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Tournaments Abroad are happy to announce the official agreement with CONIFA, the World Federation of the non-recognized nations, to provide referees for the upcoming edition of the Conifa World Cup, which will take place in London, England from May 31st to June 10th 2018.

This great competition will see the participation of the best teams hailing from non-recognized or partially-recognized nation around the World. European Champions Padania (crowned at the recent Euro 2017 in Northern Cyprus) will participate alongside other teams such as the Kiribati Islands, the Isle of Man, Northern Cyprus, Abkhazia and Cascadia.

“This is a great opportunity for all our referees to experience officiating in a World Cup”, said Tournaments Abroad’s President Daniele Curcio. “Having participated as a guest to the recent Euro 2017 competition in Northern Cyprus, I witnessed first-hand the amazing level of play and the professionalism of the Conifa referee group. For any TA referee it will be a great and rewarding challenge to participate in such an high-level competition”.

“For Tournaments Abroad it’s an honour to be invited to send a team of officials to this renowned competition”, he added, “a statement to the work we’ve done over the years to establish Tournaments Abroad as the world’s leading international refereeing network”.

More information will be provided to all interested referees in the coming months, and selection of referees is likely to start in November. We will be sending 2 referees and 2 assistants to this tournament.

For more information on FIFCO and its World Cup, visit the official website here: http://www.conifa.org/en/

The teams of the CONIFA World Cup 2018 (click image)

Partnership with the World Corporate Champions Cup 2018

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Tournaments Abroad are happy to announce the official agreement with FIFCO, the International Federation of Corporate Football, to provide referees for the 1st upcoming edition of the World Corporate Champions Cup, which will take place in Montreal, Canada in July 2018.

This incredible competition will see the participation of 16 national teams, all members of FIFCO, from around the World and it will be refereed by FIFCO-associated referees as well as international referees recruited for the competition by Tournaments Abroad, who will be exclusive providers of international referees for the World Cup.

Montreal, being the headquarters of FIFCO, is an obvious choice for the first World Corporate Champions Cup. “Congratulations to Canada”, said Mr. Albert Zbily, President of FIFCO.” FIFCO has an obligation to insure that these worldwide tournaments are properly organised and hosted with the best facilities and accommodations possible.

The Canadian bid has also confirmed the venue of the 2018 World Corporate Champions Cup to be at the Percival Molson Memorial Stadium at McGill University in Montreal. The stadium was renovated in 2010 for approximately $29.4 million and offers a capacity of a little over 25,000 seats. Due to its downtown location, the “Molson Stadium” will be easy to reach for both teams and fans. “The infrastructure is definitely a plus for Montreal”, said the FIFCO-President. “I am sure that we will experience a fantastic tournament on the slope of the Mont Royal.

More information will be provided to all interested referees in the coming months, and selection of referees is likely to start in November.

For more information on FIFCO and its World Cup, visit the official website here: http://www.fifco.org/starting-a-new-area-canada-to-host-first-fifco-world-corporate-champions-cup-in-2018/

The Referees of the Paris World Games 2017

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The 3rd edition of the Paris World Games is now just a little more than a month away and the tournament’s officials have now been selected.

For yet another year, we break a record in the number of countries represented by the referees.

156 referees will in fact be involved in this year’s event, coming from more than 30 different countries.

To you all, welcome to Paris! we look forward to working with you from July 7th to July 13th.

The Referees of the Paris World Games 2017 (opens in a new tab)

The Coaches of the TA Referee Academy

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Here at Tournaments Abroad we’re incredibly proud of the professionals who have offered their help and support for what will be the 1st edition of the “TA Referee Academy”, our newest effort in referee development.

Launching this summer, the TA Referee Academy is a development scheme aimed at offering advice, support and feedback to 40 young referees that have been selected from 300+ applications around Europe. The referees, who have been divided into two levels, will attend tournaments in Spain, France, Norway and Denmark during which they’ll be coaches by referee instructors and observers from the highest level of the game many of whom are or have been FIFA and UEFA officials.

It is now time to announce who the coaches will be for this 1st edition. Here’s a comprehensive list.

If you want to find out more about the “TA Referee Academy” or apply for consideration for the 2018 edition, please visit the dedicated page at this link.

COACHES – LEVEL 1

 

Andy Himsworth
ENGLAND
David Waller
ENGLAND
George Cain
ENGLAND
Alfonso Vicente Moral
SPAIN
Adrian Bacarisa
GIBRALTAR - COACH

Read more about our L1 coaches here.

DEVELOPERS – LEVEL 1

 

Sten Klaasen
ESTONIA
Gregor Rojko
SLOVENIA
Detelin Baialtzaliev
BULGARIA
Ian Blanchard
ENGLAND
Richard Storey
NORTHERN IRELAND
TO BE ANNOUNCED

Read more about our L1 developers here.

OBSERVERS – LEVEL 1

 

Jozef Marko
Slovakia
Uno Tutk
ESTONIA
Djamel Haimoudi
ALGERIA
Adrian Casha
MALTA
TO BE ANNOUNCED

Read more about our L1 observers here.

COACHES – LEVEL 2 

 

Donald MacKinnon
SCOTLAND
George Cain
ENGLAND
Craig Napier
SCOTLAND
Steve Brand
ENGLAND
Alfonso Vicente Moral
SPAIN
Art Mitchell
USA

Read more about our L2 coaches here.

Alan Snoddy

TOP UEFA Observer at the Ibercup Costa del Sol

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Alan Snoddy is one of the UEFA’s most well known and influential referee observers. A regular presence on the Champions League and Europa League, where he assesses the performance of officials the likes of Bjorn Kuipers and Nicola Rizzoli, is himself a former FIFA World Cup Referee.

We are happy to announce that Alan has accepted Tournaments Abroad’s invitation to attend this year’s Ibercup Costa del Sol in Marbella, Spain. He will be supporting the Referee Committee in evaluating the referees’ performance and deciding who deserved to be appointed to the finals.

Here’s a short CV of Mr Snoddy:

-  FIFA Referee from 1980 to 2000

- FIFA World Cup Referee at Mexico 1986 and Italy 1990

- Referee Observer for UEFA and FIFA in the Champions League and Europa League

- Former Referee Development Office of the Northern Irish FA

- Current President of the Referee Committee for the FA of Cyprus.

- UEFA Core coach.

Read more on Wikipedia.

Alan Snoddy

Staff at Tournaments

We are looking for Staff

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We are currently looking for some people who would like to help us during this summer’s tournaments as staff.

Every year, at our tournaments, we manage up to 200 people (referees, observers, instructors) and, in order to do that properly, we need some good members of staff. While most of our “senior” positions are occupied by people who’ve been helping us out for a number of years, we welcome also new people who are passionate about refereeing and willing to give a hand.

These positions are temporary and NOT paid, however you can expect expenses paid (travel, hotel, food and local transport), as well as a great experience together with referees, players, coaches and football people from more than 50 people worldwide. Should you need it for your studies or CV, we are also happy to provide you with a statement or letter, after the event, which says what you’ve done for us and for the tournament.

At the moment we are especially looking for people for the Paris World Cup which takes place in France from July 7th to July 13th. In particular we will need people covering the following roles:

- Positions in the Referee Office, helping our Referee Coordinators managing all referee activities.

- Field and Hotel Referee Leaders, coordinating referees, observers and staff in specific areas of the city.

We are especially looking for young people who are passionate about sports, sports management or refereeing. You should also be passionate about managing groups of people, be flexible and able to solve problems and work in a multicultural team. You should be fluent in English, while French and other languages will be considered assets.

If you are interested you can submit your application at one of the following two links:

In English

In Italian

TA Senior Management with UEFA Referee Observer Jozef Marko and Premier League Referee Coach Eddie Wolstenholme

New: The Tournaments Abroad Pre-Academy

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Many of you are now familiar with Tournaments Abroad’s latest referee development project – The TA Referee Academy. A program thanks to which young and promising referees from all around Europe will be able to train, while refereeing international tournaments, with professional referees and coaches from UEFA, FIFA, and the Premier League and other top leagues.

You can read more about the “TA Referee Academy” here.

As the first year of this exciting program starts, we are already thinking about the selection of the referees for the 2nd edition of the TA Referee Academy, which will take place in 2018.

While the 40 referees (see who they are) for this year’s Academy were selected only based on their results in a number of tests, 50% of the places for next year’s Academy will be awarded to referees who participate in the “Pre-Academy Program in 2017″. But what exactly is the “Pre-Academy”?

What is the Pre-Academy

Referees who wish to sign up to the “Pre-Academy” will have to attend one of our tournaments as normal referees, just like any other. However, as they are “Pre-Academy” referees, they will be guaranteed more opportunities to show their qualities, they will be observed more often by our staff and, should they perform well, they might earn a direct invitation to next year’s Academy, without having to go through a selection process.

Where can Pre-Academy referees go to?

The only tournaments that will be awarded “Pre-Academy” places are the Paris World Cup and the Ibercup Estoril. Why? because those are the tournaments where our staff and observers will be more present. Sign up for one of these two tournaments if you’d like to become a “Pre-Academy” referee.

Is there a maximum number of Pre-Academy referees?

Yes, only 20 referees will be allowed to be included in the “Pre-Academy” at the Paris World Cup, and only 10 will be considered for the Ibercup Estoril.

How can I ask to be a “Pre-Academy” referee?

You only need to apply for one of our tournaments through this form. Once you are contacted by a member of our staff to confirm your participation, you should say you’d like to be a “Pre-Academy” referee.