MIAMI, Florida – Concacaf’s delegation of referees for the 2023 Gold Cup are busily preparing for this summer’s tournament with a series of courses and training exercises to continue the high standard of refereeing in Gold Cup tournaments.
In early June, the Mexican Football Federation Center of Refereeing Excellence will host a Referees Summer Course for a delegation of 94, including 60+ match officials scheduled to participate in the Gold Cup and another 13 match officials who will have roles in this summer’s FIFA 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia/New Zealand.
The Course participants will engage in technical preparation, match analysis, VAR simulator, match simulation with players and VAR live, plus training with players, a recovery session and Physio therapist.
“I want to thank the FMF for the use of their facilities that will provide all the professionalism to better prepare the match officials for these very important competitions,” said Nicola Rizzoli, Concacaf’s Technical Refereeing Advisor.
“There will be five days of seminars with our match officials, three fields of play with players to simulate games and situations, an auditorium for classroom sessions, VAR simulators and gym sessions. This will be available to the 94 people who will attend this course, the 73 match officials and 21 staff members, the entire referee department, instructors, assessors, and physios,” added Rizzoli.
Match analysts who worked to prepare referees for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar will also have a role in the Course at the FMF, while the use of technology will be another important aspect.
“We will have VAR simulators available to reach consistency in its correct use and intervention, as well as meticulous technical preparation to allow correct control of the match. The main focuses will be on: Protecting the game image; protecting the safety of the players; ensuring consistency and reliability (laws interpretations); technical and tactical approach (reading the game) and technology support (VAR),” added Rizzoli.
The following week a Gold Cup Preparation seminar will be held in Dallas for the 81-member delegation that will be taking part in the Gold Cup, consisting of Staff/Instructors, Referees, Assistant Referees, Video Match Officials and Support Referees.
“For the Gold Cup 2023, we will continue to work on the athletic and physical aspects of referees to be at the best of conditions, and we will reinforce the technical guidelines to achieve the objectives of having uniformity of interpretation and VAR intervention in case of a mistake. We will continue to push on the technical and tactical preparation of the teams (match analyses) in order to be best prepared for the individual matches,” said Rizzoli.
As part of a continuing effort to be fully transparent with participating teams, Concacaf will be recording these sessions to best show the professional approach to the preparation of Concacaf referees and how it leads to taking correct decisions on the field.
Concacaf will also undergo a thorough analysis with refereeing teams both before and after every Gold Cup group stage and knockout round match.
“In this edition of the Gold Cup, the referee will have their trios to provide more consistency as a team to then have top performances throughout the tournament. Each match will be prepared with a pre-match tactical briefing, and immediately after the game there will be an evaluation and a post-match analysis with the Gold Cup referees committee.
“After every matchday, there will be a general debriefing with all the referees in order to be aligned and consistent in the evaluation of the different situations that occurred during the matches. We will also prepare statistics and videos to then have a general line of interpretation of the entire delegation’s performance and a personal evaluation of the referee trio,” concluded Rizzoli.
