The COREMALTA unit within the Refereeing Centre organised a day-seminar for the COREMALTA programme participants.

In his introduction, Kevin Azzopardi as Director of Refereeing, addressed the participants and emphasised that they were chosen so as to promote their development successfully at Elite level. The idea of setting up a COREMALTA Unit was imported from the successful model of the UEFA Centre of Refereeing Excellence (CORE) programme and in line with what other countries are currently implementing.

The first presentation ‘Reaching your goals’ was delivered by FIFA Referee Clayton Pisani, and in an interesting delivery he shared his experiences from the very first steps of his career to the present, and also his ideas. He also spoke about match preparation, attitude and the need for all to adopt an open-minded approach. This session was also attended by the Refereeing Academy students, which created a positive synergy between the two units.

The second presentation was delivered by Assistant Director of Refereeing Andrè Arciola, who enhanced it with various video clips about different match situations. After visualising their assigned clip, the participants were divided into groups with the task of each group reporting about that particular clip and situation.

Guest lecturer Samantha Tabone (Sport Psychologist) animated the next presentation about mental preparation for a match, mental routines which can assist officials to focus on the present and the task/match assigned to them. This session also included a number of practical exercises to test the level of concentration of the participants.

Match situations involving local officials in domestic leagues, was the fourth presentation delivered by Assistant Director of Refereeing Philip Agius, who stressed on the importance of the cooperation between the referee and his assistants, the appropriate flagging techniques, and proper use of communication equipment so as to reach more uniformity.

Stephen Mallia, Head of the COREMALTA Unit, concluded the seminar by underlining that the primary goal of the COREMALTA programme was to create a healthy environment for participants to help develop them to their fullest potential in a friendly competitive atmosphere. He wished the participants every success and noted with satisfaction the positive attitude they adopted during the seminar with their enthusiasm and spirit.