Somali Faces Appear On International Referees List

Somali Faces Appear On International Referees List

The International Football Federation (FIFA) has announced the list of 2014 International referees and assistant referees, the list which shows young Somali faces who are the seemingly new to the international platform, but had so far served as referees in the country's National league.

Some of the new faces who appeared in the international list include: Mohamed Hagi Hassan, Mohamed Mussa Abdullahi, Aweys Abdullahi Sheik and Ali Mohamud Mahad and as shown in the list their international standard starts from 2014and will serve until they will have retired.

Bashir Olad Arab who formerly served as an international assistant referee now changed into a 'centre' referee after he was out for a period of one year in a bid to change position, as the law allows.

Some other key former international referees and assistant referees were removed from the FIFA list due to different reasons, according to Somali Football Federation referees development office Chief Abdi Abdulle Ahmed, himself a former international centre referee.

Those removed from the FIFA list are: Nur Mohamed Abdulle (Rooso) AWeys Abdullahi Nur, Osman Abdi Omar (Shuriye) and Mohamed Hassan Fidow. "All I can say about them is that they were very active and voluntarily served for the country, they showed activeness and commitment both locally and internationally during their period as FIFA referees and we will always be thankful to them" SFF referees development office Chief Abdi Abdulle Ahmed said in a press statement.

Mr. Ahmed said that the new referees added into the FIFA list of international referees and assistant referees were new generation and had professionally served in the Somali league for the past three seasons.

"These young age referees were trained at the FIFA level courses held for Somalia in Djibouti in April 2012 and in March 2013 where they gained much knowledge and experience whilst FIFA instructors who taught them were fully satisfied with their performances during class attendance and at fitness training sessions" Somali Football Federation referees development office Chief Abdi Abdulle Ahmed said in his press statement.

On the 18th of April 2012, FIFA instructor Joseph Wellington told the SFF media that he was fully satisfied with the fitness and endurance of the young age referees brought to the course by Somali Football federation.

"Most referees in the course are very young and I say with a loud voice that Somali Football Federation authorities are praiseworthy for coming with such young faces--FIFA is very much interested in the young age referees and it spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually on the refereeing development programs world wide" the FFA instructor indicated.