Somali Football referees are under huge preparations for a FIFA level refereeing course for the country’s elite referees. The course is slated in the neighbouring Djibouti next month according to a press statement by SFF secretary General Abdi Qani Said Arab on Sunday evening.

The Secretary General said in his press statement which was issued at the SFF headquarters here in Mogadishu that the referees are undergoing daily training sessions in the capital and other regions in the country, as kind of their preparations for the FIFA course.

“Here we have fully talented instructors including former international referees Abdi Abdulle Ahmed and Hassan Mohamed Mahmoud—I am very confident in the knowledge and experience of the instructors who are capable of coming with referees of high quality to the FIFA course in Djibouti” SFF secretary general Abdi Qani Said Arab mentioned in his statement.

He said that the FIFA refereeing course will gather some 28 elite national and international level referees from the southern regions and the semiautonomous states of Somaliland, Puntland and Gal-Mudug in a bid to spread the knowledge of football across the country.

“Our course is slated in Djibouti for 3-7 March this year—Somali Football Federation is weighting on increasing the quality and quantity of soccer referees in the country and that is why we hold the FIFA level course annually” noted the secretary General who added that Somali referees also undergo five other local courses each year.

He praised FIFA for its endless efforts of helping the SFF to promote the progress of football in a country which was totally ravaged by one of the world’s most notorious civil wars for over two decades.

Somali Football federation has in the past been using the neighbouring Djibouti as its home, because of the troubled situation in Somalia which prevented FIFA to send its instructors. The lack of suitable facilities was also another key problem since the FIFA instructors need an international class facility for their fitness trainings during the course.

Somalia’s old facility ‘Stadium Banadir ‘has now been shaped with an artificial turf this year, but key parts of the stadium still need to be reconstructed. However Secretary General Abdi Qani Said Arab says he was very hopeful that next year’s FIFA course for Somalia will be conducted in Mogadishu if the construction of stadium Banadir ends by April as expected and the security situations fully develops.

By Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar
Email:shafislow@yahoo.com