As part of the Females in Football week planned for mid February, Footballsouth is planning to get women and girls more involved in the game and, if they are keen, to grasp the opportunity to referee on a casual or ongoing basis.

The Females in Football Week is an initiative aimed at getting more women involved in football as players, coaches and referees. Mums are being specially targeted to get off the sidelines and on to the pitch to use the skills they have as mums. Those skills are the same as we are looking for in grassroots referees.

NZF wants to raise the awareness of women to the skills they can bring to refereeing, the personal benefits they can get from refereeing, and help them become a qualified referee. Refereeing isn't just about the rules, it's about teaching children and young people life skills that they can apply outside of football.

Eight reasons why mums make great referees. They:

• adapt at short notice to changes
• organise their time
• help others
• communicate clearly
• deal with disputes
• get pleasure from seeing others do well
• want to see fair and safe play
• enjoy success

But, it's not just about mums. All women may find refereeing rewarding, get travel opportunities, make new friends, develop fitness, and build self confidence. As the first step, take the girls and women's introductory refereeing course (2 to 2 and a half hours), then referee the kids at club level.

If you enjoy it then you can look at taking a further course and refereeing teenagers and, after that, well the sky is the limit as there are great opportunities to referee both nationally and internationally. Many women also prefer to referee in both men's and women's competitions.

TAKE THE PLUNGE.

Register your interest now in course planned for either Saturday, 13th February, Sunday, 14th February or Monday evening, 15th February. Courses can also be arranged for days outside these. And, these courses can also be offered in Southland, Central Otago, North Otago and South Canterbury - just ask.

Click on the E-mail link below or telephone the Referee Development Officer, Chris Boyd, on 4738205.

 Girls and Womens Course