FIFA referee Matthew De Gabriele took part in the Talent & Mentor Kick-Off Meeting staged by UEFA with one main target to reach the summit for all those in attendance, in terms of performance, game management, penalty area situations, and other fundamentals entailed in being a quality match official.

The Talent and Mentor 2023-2024 program was held in Nyon at the UEFA Headquarters in the final days of August, staged over three days with a total of 32 referee talents – 20 men and 12 women.

This participation is deemed a milestone for the Malta FA Refereeing Department, coming after a long absence that a Maltese match official got nominated on this significant program.

Each talent has been assigned an experienced mentor (who are all former international referees), and a healthy relationship based on trust and excellent communication had to be established between them.

The course was led by the two main refereeing officers: Bjorn Kuipers and Dagmar Damkova, with experienced instructors Kyros Vassaras and Hugh Dallas also providing their input with presentations to the group.