Laura Cordani in Nyon for UEFA Course for International Assistant Referees

A prestigious and demanding experience in Nyon for Laura Cordani – international assistant referee for San Marino. The 36-year-old from Emilia took part in the UEFA Course for Women Assistant Referees, which began on Monday 6 November and – in terms of scheduled activities – concluded yesterday. Today, in fact, the 37 assistant referees representing thirty-one different national referee associations are due to return to their respective home countries. The participants in the UEFA course wasted no time, getting down to work already on Monday afternoon after arriving in Switzerland in the morning. The three-day event opened with a brief introduction entrusted to Dagmar Damková, one of the most influential and decorated referees in the women’s game, who also – at the time – received appointments in the top men’s domestic division, in her case the Czech league, more than 20 years ago. The first sessions took place mainly in the classroom and continued with a test on the current Laws of the Game and video analysis. Finally, there was time for a detailed explanation of how to simulate match situations applied to on-field review, which was one of the main innovations in Tuesday’s programme. The second day in Nyon began with the collection of biometric data from the thirty-seven participants, very early in the morning, after which the entire group moved out onto the pitch for a series of drills linked to on-field review. The well-earned lunch break served as a bridge to a simulation of situations that frequently occur during a match and in the assessment of which the cooperation between assistant referees and the referee is also crucial. Among these were potential handball offences, SPA and DOGSO (the acronyms that indicate fouls which stop promising attacks or, in the second case, obvious goalscoring opportunities), as well as PAI – the latter referring to incidents occurring in the penalty area (i.e. Penalty Area Incidents). Breaking up the afternoon was a session of group work focused on cooperation and communication between the match officials – an element that very often makes the difference in the overall performance of the refereeing team. Before dinner there was a discussion on the timing of when to raise the flag, in light of the new regulations that take into account the presence of VAR – where implemented. Further tests on the Laws of the Game, also based on video situations, preceded the final topic of the second day – the presentation of the physical and athletic performance checks scheduled in Wednesday’s programme. These activities took place in the morning and subjected the thirty-seven assistant referees to an analysis of their performance in terms of agility, sprinting, aerobic capacity and endurance (also through the well-known ARIET – Assistant Referee Intermittent Endurance Test). Yesterday afternoon, the actual concluding session, focused on the topic of offside – the core responsibility of every assistant referee, even if we far too often and unfairly overlook the multifaceted evolution the role’s interpretation has undergone in recent years. Discussions, feedback and analysis of the subsequent group work, as well as a review of the physical performances recorded in the morning, made way for the closing remarks, once again delivered by Dagmar Damková.

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