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The Fifth Official: Preparing Future Officials For Elite Level Challenges

By League1 Ontario staff, 08/25/16, 4:45PM EDT

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League1 Ontario fans may have noticed an extra official at matches this season, and in many cases that "extra" official will have seemed a little... young.

The "Fifth Official Development Program" is designed to bring the next generation of aspiring officials into a full matchday presentation, in order for participants to get an initial sense of the challenges, and a primer course in the environment and expectations of high-performance leagues. 

Durham United FA (an alliance of east Toronto clubs, including Pickering and Oshawa Kicks) has used the "Fifth Official" program on several occasions this season, most recently at the Oshawa Civic Centre for a top of the table tilt between the league's defending champions (Durham) and the current L1 Cup champions (Vaughan). 

League1 Ontario caught up with several notaries from across the league, including Tony Camacho (League1 Ontario Director of Officials), Corrado Roccasalva (President of Pickering Soccer Club) and Elizabeth McCaw (Executive Director of Oshawa Kicks Soccer Club), to discuss how the program has been working...


Photo: Nicky Pearson

How does the 5th referee/ official's development program work? 

TC - At this time this is not a program that is officially in place through the OSA Match Officials Department.  The department and myself tried to implement this last season in League1, specifically in areas where the number of qualified Match Officials (MO) were lower, in an effort to create some interest in the league at the local officiating level. Unfortunately, we met with some commitment issues from a number of clubs and districts and it did not fully get off the ground.  

However some clubs liked the idea and started using local young match officials in this role. We will pursue this for next season.

CR - League1 standards require that we provide a game day referee liaison. This in itself is a pretty simple task requiring very little effort and in fact referee experience is not even a prerequisite. It was Elizabeth who saw the opportunity to provide our young referees with the experience of participating in a match at this level.

The hope is that the experience would further motivate their aspirations to progress as referees. Having said this, the program does not work unless there is buy-in from the game officials.

EM - They attend dressed in their ref uniform. We introduce them to the official team for the night as they arrive.

Usually they would sit at the fourth officials table and help call subs to the media box. This would let them see how the game is managed from the table. They walk the officials to and from the dressing room.

For example, during DUFA's June 24th game, the lead official allowed our female youth official to stand at centre for opening ceremonies on field, sit at the table and help flip the sub board, invited her into the underground to sit with them at half-time and gave her the flip coin and a red card at the end of the game.

This would be our hope moving forward. Our youth ref was so excited and motivated after the experience and the lead official told us it was great to be able to add mentorship to their portfolio.

This concept only works if the officials are willing to go out of their way to add this piece to the game experience.


Photo: Nicky Pearson

Is this a province-wide program and how are participants chosen?

TC - Participants will be chosen by the districts or the clubs, and monitored by them.

EM - We send our club head referee a request for each scheduled game asking for a female or male youth referee (girl for the women's games, boy for the men's game).

What are the potential benefits to the participants, and of course to the overall official's development program?

TC - This will allow young MO to see what it is like to be at the higher levels of officiating, and how to manage pre- and post- games.  It will show them the need for the level of professionalism and communication, and relationship building.  

CR - There is no reason why we can't be better in this country... better leaders, better coaches, better players and better game officials.

Standards based programs are helping but we need to go deeper given the limited number of those exposed to them. We need to provide further opportunities for young people that result in a positive experience (most recently the 5th Official).

These positive experiences will keep youth engaged potentially leading to aspirations to further their involvement in the game. Regardless of whether you are a player, coach  or game official - all will benefit.


Photo: Martin Bazyl

What new challenges are presented for officials with the advent of elite high-performance levels such as League1?

TC - The demand for better, fitter MO will be the biggest challenge, and the changing of the culture of doing 8-10 games per week and instead spending more time on training and education.

CR - An official's job will always be difficult, the challenge is consistency and continuity.  However this is difficult given the nature of their solitary existence. 

Frankly they are placed in a no win situation where every call is not only subjective from official to official but also from play to play given their respective on-field positioning at that point in time. This leads to the animosity we often see towards game officials; how can anyone develop an ambition to follow in their footsteps when they are continuously criticized?

Looking at other team sports and the way they are being officiated may provide some perspective.

In comparison, hockey is considered by many as the fastest team game on earth! It's officiated by a team of three, all of whom have a whistle and can significantly impact a game over a playing surface of approximately 17, 000 sq ft.

In comparison, our game has a team of four with only one whistle and to boot they cover an area over 4.5 times bigger at over 80, 000 sq ft.

I realize that there are three on-field officials, but besides the "offside call" they are often not directly involved.

This presents the official in the centre with the task of being on "game pace' and never afforded the possibility of being caught out of position, which can sometimes lead to a missed/ non-call only to be made under the same circumstances just a few minutes later leading to the animosity and criticism they endure. 

There is no easy fix, we play based on the rules and how they are interpreted.

Perhaps improving communication and empowering sideline officials in a way that leads to greater involvement will result in less scrutiny and animosity towards our game officials.  This can only highlight the significance of the DUFA Fifth Officials program.

What methods are used to develop officials for the challenges (ie. fitness tests, video review etc.) of performance at elite levels?

TC - We require that our League1 Match Officials train 2-3 days per week and only referee a maximum of three games per week - this also allows for one day of complete rest.  

Elite match officials are athletes, and need to treat themselves as such.  

As the Director of Officials for League1, I personally review a lot of game video and have conference calls with L1 MO on a regular basis regarding any concerns, education opportunities or development issues.

What ongoing methods are employed by the match officials department to assess and grade officials for elite senior levels such as League1 and higher? (assessments, audits etc.)

TC - The MO department with leadership from the Ontario Soccer Association's Match Officials Development Committee developed a grading protocol system three years ago that will improve MO at all levels. The Technical Advisory Group program includes development plans for assessors, referee coaches, mentors and referee scouts.  

With Long Term Officials Development on the horizon, there will be more education and fitness requirements to reach the Elite level, and the officials will be better prepared once they reach there.  

We also hold an annual two day Elite Training Camp in partnership with League1, OUA and OCAA where 80 of the top officials are invited.  


Photo: Martin Bazyl

What are the tiers for officials (regional, provincial, national) and how does one move from level to level?

TC - Referees at the entry level are classified as a grade 4 or youth referee if they are under the age of 16 and they start in the club pool.  

Then, based on game experience, age, exam results and eventually fitness tests, they move up the grading ladder annually. Somewhat like a student in school - you meet the requirements to move up a grade, you move up a grade. Moving forward, with the implementation of Long Term Officials Development (LTOD), the official can choose whether they wish to take the Elite/Talented Pathway (higher requirements for fitness and experience) or stay on the Soccer For Life Pathway.  We follow CSA policy for Regional and Provincial upgrading.

Once you have been a provincial Match Official for two years, you can apply to the Advanced Referee Training Program - and from here you can be nominated to the National List.  


Photo: Nicky Pearson

Finally, in the case of Durham United Football Association, for example, is the club involved in any other mentorship initiatives at the League1 Ontario level?

CR - YES! Through our DUFA alliance, as well as our individual clubs, we are committed to developing players, coaches and officials with a like-minded approach.

Here are some examples...

1) GK/ GK coaches: last year we initiated a DUFA GK game day experience. The basic principle was for our DUFA GK coach/ player (Eugene Alves) to allow young GKs and coaches the up-close and personal experience of the on-field warm up rituals prior to an actual match.

Young coaches were placed behind the goal and provided with a written warm-up plan which Eugene explained as he went through the process. The organization, delivery, skill level of the DUFA keeper and the vantage point from directly behind the goal left many young keepers in awe.   

2) Future Coaches: the plan here is to motivate coaches to further develop their craft by exposing them to a higher level in our standards-based environments.

DUFA club coaches are selected to participate in match-week as an assistant coach representing their respective club within the alliance. The key here is to identify the coach by his/her specific club so that the experience can be recognized by others as a unique opportunity. 

These coaches would work with the DUFA coaching staff by participating in the training sessions. This would be followed by running the pre-game warm up and finally being listed on the game sheet and participating in, and experiencing, the game.

This exposure could help further cement a young coach's aspirations to coach. 

Additionally, coaches from all alliance members scheduled for licensing courses have the opportunity to run training sessions in preparation for their courses with the support of our L1 coaches and players further contributing to their development.


Photo: Nicky Pearson