This two-year Talent & Mentor Programme for the first time was launched overseas during a seminar held in Cologne, Germany.

On Saturday 29th, a group of 15 referees and assistant referees, and 6 administrators, left Malta to Dusseldorf for their onward final destination to Sportschule Hennef Sports Complex where the Directors of Refereeing Kevin Azzopardi and Ivan Mrkalj (the German host) opened of the Seminar; after which Kevin Azzopardi delivered a presentation It’s a matter of attitude followed by Andrè Arciola’s practical session on Concentration and Awareness.

On the days that followed, Marco Borg conducted a video test on the match situations and explained the answers; a tour to Cologne Stadium was organised; a team-building session was held at Kletterwald Hennef; a guide-through of Sportschule Hennef was organised; while one night dinner was followed by a nightwalk through the city of Cologne.

Ivan Mrkalj discussed Types of player – how to deal with them?; Dr. Jan F. Orth spoke on German Football and the Referee System; while Alexander Feuerherdt went through Curiosities of the laws and rules.

Early morning training sessions were taken care of by Adrian Azzopardi.

Two friendly matches were programmed on Sunday 30th and observed by German referee coaches, as follows: FC Pesch – VFB Solingen 4-0 (Daniel Portelli – referee, Ivan Galea and Robert Curtis) and SpVg Flittard – GW Brauweiler 5-3 (Shaun Calleja – referee, Duncan Spencer and William Zerafa).

Kevin Azzopardi and Adrian Azzopardi tested participants on English Proficiency; Roberto Buontempo dealt with Management & Body Language; and Stephen Mallia went through Match Analysis with the participation of referee observers.

The seminar was concluded by Kevin Azzopardi Ivan Mrkalj. with addresses on the previous days’ contribution and experiences.