A-League Coaches Forum a Success

The inaugural Hyundai A-League Coaches Forum was held in Sydney today and was deemed a resounding success by all those involved.

Representatives from each A-League club met with referees representatives and A-League management to discuss a variety of issues which included:

• The interpretation of the 2006 FIFA Laws of the Game
  
  
• The future use of radio microphones for communication between referees and assistant referees
  
  
• The clamping down on player and team official dissent
  
  
• An agreement to work towards the eradication of the feigning of injury to gain a tactical advantage as witnessed during the recent FIFA World Cup.
  
  
• The possibility of trialing players in the 2007 Pre-Season competition
  
  
• National Team player selection process and international match schedule
  
  
• Youth Player development programs
  
  
• Enhancements to the broadcast coverage by Fox Sports

Football Federation Australia Head of Operations, Matt Carroll, was extremely pleased with the outcomes of the historic forum.

“Today was a welcomed initiative for the A-League. It was a great opportunity for coaches, referees and the A-League management to sit down and discuss a range of issues pertaining to the improvement of the standard of football within the competition for the benefit of all our supporters.

“The overriding message from the meeting was that there is definite desire for all stakeholders to cooperatively work together towards improving the overall quality of the matches,” concluded Carroll.

The forum began with a review of on-field incidents from the A-League 2005-06 season which was facilitated by FFA National Refereeing Manager, Richard Lorenc and A-League referees Ben Williams and Simon Przydacz. This review helped clarify particular Laws of the Game that have been modified by FIFA in recent years.

One of the more significant discussions centred around whether players were faking injury to try and gain a tactical advantage, which some critics believe is a worrying trend of World football.

In football there has been an unwritten rule of sportsmanship that if a player is down injured and the opposition has the ball, then the ball is kicked out of play so that the injured player can receive medical attention.

Some critics believe at the 2006 FIFA World Cup this sporting gesture was abused with teams feigning injury if they felt the opposition may have been in an attacking position.

The A-League coaches agreed their players will play the whistle and respect the referee's decision to stop the match.

Under the laws of the game the referee may stop play at any time if they feel a player is seriously injured.

The coaches agreed it would limit feigning of injury and would encourage attacking football.