Southwell City recently hosted a training course for aspiring football referees.
The club hosted the referee course as part of the Young Elizabethan League Referee Community Development programme, run in conjunction with Nottinghamshire FA.
Eighteen young footballers from around the county participated in the course and all candidates became qualified FA mini soccer referees at the end of it.
Five of the participants were from Southwell. This helps the club as it increases the number of referees available to officiate at the club’s annual summer tournament.
The newly qualified referees were quickly in action as they were invited to officiate at a local Under 7’s tournament just one week later. The competition allowed the lads to quickly get some proper match experience, taking charge of a number of games each.
As the competition ended, the Southwell referees were chosen to take charge of both semi-finals and both finals on the day, making it a memorable debut for all of our newly qualified officials.
Pictured: Tom Kessler, Matt Timms, Toby Short, Matt Cunningham