Help keep RefChat running, any donation would be appreciated
Hey! I'll also be attending this year, from what my fellow referees told me that also attended is that it's grueling and generally energy consuming but it's an opportunity that you apparently literally shouldn't miss and should soak up as much knowledge as possible. When I applied through my association, the original dates were the 31st till the 5th, so sadly I'll miss out on the newly allocated matches.
and yes - drop me a message! I'm the lowest level out of the 3 of us selected so a bit anxious given it's a big responsibility but looking forward to it nonetheless
No chance I would say. Unless there are laundry facilities you are going to need one kit per day, and even with laundry you are going to need multiple colours of shirts (recommend yellow, blue and green). Then any undergarments you may need, boots, flags, box of tricks, any clothes you need for non-refereeing activities, toiletries, and so on.
Still seems to be a bit tight expecting you to survive 5 days refereeing on hand luggage.Thanks all, we had our pre-pre chat call. Arriving Tuesday leaving Sunday. Apparently last years group 10kg was enough, and the hotels used have laundry facilities. Most pitches are 4G albeit not the best condition, I have trail runners and Team Mundials I'll bring with me. Fortunate enough to have a good selection of kits and colours as well. I've already started mashing out cardio in the gym, my cardio isn't bad by any stretch but I don't do 3-4 games a day in potentially much warmer weather than we have here. Or I could be completely wrong and it's caning it down all week
It's a stretch I'll admit but it's been done before. So we were asked to fill in and expression of interest, paid for flights when selected and still have the tournament fee to pay them directly so I presume it's all through then it's just our RDO is point of contact. One of the other referees from my county who is coming did the Italy World Games and that was planned the same as this.
️
Some CFAs work with Referee Abroad to provide opportunities for their referees.
Absolute highlights were AS Roma vs AEK Athens in the elite category, Roma vs Select Brasil and Met Oval Academy vs a elite Nigerian team.
and I'd certainly recommend Cascais to anyone thinking of doing it next year. Helped that the weather was 22-25 degrees each day!
Well done!Quick update, it was incredible. Some of the places we refereed at were breath-taking. Certainly a language barrier with teams. My favourite word for the week being "aqui" for here
Covered 3 games a day as a Teamof3, last day I did the 7v7 category on my own. I'd say a lot of the elite U13 teams were the equivalent of U18 back home, very quick technical football.
Some drawbacks, the appointments didn't come out till 1,2am most mornings so if you had 8.30am games you were knackered. I blistered loads and took FGs and turf trainers. Managed to get 13x kits and non buzz flags in hand luggage, as well as both boots so certainly possible!
Games were 2x 25mins with no HT. I wasn't observed by my CFA took our RDO who coached us for the week.
Hotel was decent, London FA, Hampshire, Lincoln and a few others were in our hotel whereas the international referees were at another hotel.
Pushed me far outside my comfort zone but learnt so much in a week that I would have for the rest of this season at least!
I've said yes to doing the Paris World Games in July so I must be mad enough
️
I did Paris last summer, and it was amazing, unfortunately I was stuck at the same ground the whole tournament due to going with Suffolk FA and some appointment decisions, but you will love it and the appointments usually came out between midnight and 1am so a bit nicer for you
