Doha: Pierluigi Collina, Chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee, inaugurated the FIFA symposium for the referees selected to officiate at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ matches, which is being held in Doha with the participation of 41 match officials from Asia, Africa and Oceania, from 12-14 June.

The inauguration of the symposium came at the InterContinental Hotel, in the presence of a large number of dignitaries, headed by Pierluigi Collina, Chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee; Massimo Busacca, Head of the FIFA Refereeing Department; Hani Talib Ballan, Head of the Referees Committee of the Qatar Football Association, Vice-Chairman of the Referees Committees of FIFA and AFC, and Naji Al-Jueini, Executive Director of Refereeing at the Qatar Football Association.

The symposium will be attended by 41 match officials selected to take charge of games at the upcoming World Cup finals, including 12 referees, 22 assistant referees and 7 video assistant referees representing 3 continents – Asia, Africa and Oceania.

Qatari referees are among the officials participating in the symposium, and they are Abdulrahman Al-Jassem (referee), Talib Al-Marri, Saud Ahmed (assistants) and Abdullah Al-Athba (video assistant referee).

For the first time in history, women will officiate some of the matches at the FIFA World Cup, after six female referees were chosen to participate in the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™. Four of them are participating at the symposium in Doha: Rwanda’s Salima Mukasanga, Japan’s Yoshimi Yamashita (referee), Brazil’s Noiza Pak, and American Catherine Nesbitt (assistant referee).

The working group in the symposium includes a team of international technical lecturers and others for medical treatment along with specialised staff for fitness, in addition to specialists in technological support, and administrative staff.

The symposium consists of an intensive program that includes theoretical and practical lectures, under the supervision of Pierluigi Collina, Massimo Busacca, and Hani Ballan.

The FIFA symposium for the selected referees hosted by Doha is the second this summer, after the first which was held in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, and this will be followed by the third symposium that will be held in the Spanish capital, Madrid.

During the symposium, individual programmes will be available for these referees, especially with regard to their health and fitness, and a final assessment will be given to them on the technical, physical and medical aspects with the aim of getting them to their best conditions before the start of the tournament in Qatar.

Video clips about actual situations that occurred in matches will be reviewed and analysed, and referees will participate in practical training sessions that involve players. The sessions will be filmed and sent to mentors so that the participants can later get their feedback and opinions.

The activities of the course started yesterday morning through fitness sessions, weight tests and other lectures on VAR technology, according to the course programme, with theoretical and practical activities set to continue until the 14th of this month.

This is not the first time that FIFA has held such courses in Doha, especially with its status as an international sports capital with its great capabilities. The Qatar Football Association had previously hosted a FIFA symposium for the female referees selected to manage the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 matches, with the participation of 75 referees, and another camp for the assistant referees participating in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015.

Doha also hosted the FIFA symposiums for referees in April 2016, and the FIFA symposium for refereeing lecturers was held in 2018, while the QFA also organised the FIFA workshop for referees selected to manage the matches of the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018, as well as the workshop for women referees nominated to officiate games of the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019.