DOHA: The four-day FIFA Technical Experts’ Workshop was concluded in Doha on Friday with a closing ceremony attended by top Qatar Football Association (QFA) officials and experts numbering more than a 100 from 30 football associations and 6 confederations.

Fahad Thani, QFA Director of Development, also attended the closing ceremony. FIFA Technical Director Steven Martens also attended the ceremony.

The workshop in Doha focused on education and further training for technical directors and for men’s and women’s coaches from national associations, as well as the development of women’s football and promoting the game at youth and grassroots level.

For both theoretical and practical activities, which were worked on in plenary sessions and in smaller groups, the content of the current and future FIFA programmes was thoroughly discussed, with emphasis on values such as transparency, belonging, responsibility and cooperation.

The aim of the workshop – which is the first of its kind in five years – is to inform the various FIFA experts, with all their different backgrounds and specialisations, of our new ‘FIFA 2.0’ structure and philosophy, and also tell them about the recently introduced programme to improve technical excellence,” said Jurg Nepfer, FIFA Head of Technical Development Services. “Each national association has its own special challenges to deal with, and we intend to provide tailored programmes to meet these various needs.”

QFA will conduct three more workshops in the coming weeks in what will the first time that FIFA has allocated such high profile knowledge and experience sharing sessions.

The second forum is for the referees and video assistants who will feature in the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia this summer. The seminar will feature of 37 referees from February 5 to 9.

The third seminar will be held from February 12 to 16 while the fourth and final session of the referees’ will be attended by 100 lecturers from 19 to 22 February.

This is the first time in that FIFA have sanctioned a series of seminars in one country. In one year, no country has ever organized such a number of referees’ courses.

The FIFA-QFA collaboration on referees was launched four years ago when Qatar hosted training sessions for the referees of the 2014 FIFA World Cup held in Brazil.

“This workshop continues to show the commitment from QFA to develop the game with the world’s top technical experts. QFA will continue to stage such workshops to take the game forward the right way,” Fahad Thani said.