Referees: Podeschi at the UEFA Best Practices Workshop in Vienna

Comparable, in Italian, to virtuous and effective approaches to achieving or moving closer to set objectives, best practices represent a clear benchmark, a model and an opportunity to be shared with counterparts, making one’s specific experience available in the common interest of improving the performance of a system – in this case, the European refereeing system. The UEFA Best Practices Workshop for referees was held again in Vienna on 30 November and 1 December, opened by Roberto Rosetti, Chairman of the UEFA Referees Committee. The first topic addressed – unfortunately of recurring relevance – was abuse against match officials in all its forms. This sensitive subject has been tackled head-on by UEFA with a dedicated campaign entitled "Real Scars". Through contributions from Rob Hennessy and Sarunas Tamulynas, representing the refereeing departments of Ireland and Lithuania, the topic was examined in depth, also introducing a focus that has always been among the most important worldwide: recruitment. In this respect, a valuable contribution came from José Fontelas of the Portuguese association, who developed the closely related next step of retention (keeping referees within the system after they have entered the category). Dedicated workshops enabled representatives of all European refereeing associations to engage in concrete dialogue on the topics proposed: for Stefano Podeschi, representing the ASA, joint work was carried out alongside colleagues from Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Spain, Estonia and Finland. The first afternoon of the workshop also focused on women’s refereeing – a topic introduced by Katia Senesi, member of the AIA National Committee and recently appointed to the UEFA Referee Convention Panel. The second day of discussions examined the impact of leagues and other official institutions on the refereeing landscape.

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