ISL concludes Premier Skills Referee Development Programme in Mumbai

Premier Skills, a partnership between the British Council and the Premier League, has completed its hugely successful Referee Development initiative, in Mumbai in partnership with the Indian Super League and All India Football Federation.

The three day training started from February 27 and continued till March 1. Around 30 participants from the Maharashtra Football Association (MFA) were awarded certificates.

The referee development programme was led by Ray Olivier, Head of Professional Referee Development for the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL).

He was responsible for training and development of all the match officials within the professional game. Ray was supported by Iain Williamson, Match Observer & CORE Performance Coach, PGMOL.

The training involved participants who were interested in becoming or further developing as a referee within their communities.

The programme strongly advocated gender equality through sport and strives to maximise the female participation.

Since Premier Skills programme began in 2007, around 7,600 coaches and referees have been trained in 29 countries, who in turn have reached 1.2 million young people.

Premier Skills has already delivered a highly successful programme in India, training 400 coaches, who in turn have reached 20,000 young people since the programme began here.