Bangkok, Thailand, March 10, 2025 – Work areas including developing referee coaches, developing strategic directions, shortage of female officials and beach officials are among key issues discussed at the AVC Referee Committee Meeting on Monday.
The meeting was held in a hybrid format, with AVC Referee Committee Chairman Mr Dean Edward Turner Oam from Australia, Co Secretary (Volleyball) Mr Hamid Mohamed Ahmed Alrousi Alhammadi from United Arab Emirates and Co Secretary (Beach Volleyball) Mr Kritsada Panaseri from Thailand joining onsite. Mr Ibrahim Mohd Al-Naama from Qatar, Mr Jaafar Ebrahim Ahmed Ali from Bahrain, Dr Khaled Alzughaibi from Saudi Arabia, Mr Shigeru Koshiba from Japan, Mr Joo Dongwook from Korea, Mr Zhang Xin from China and Mr Mohammad Shahmiri from Iran attended on Zoom.
The AVC Referee Committee was also honored with the presence of AVC President Mr Ramon Suzara and AVC Secretary General Mr Hugh Graham at the AVC Headquarters in Bangkok on Monday.
AVC President Mr Ramon Suzara
In his welcome speech, AVC President Ramon Suzara urged the newly-appointed members in the Committee to actively participate and show their initiatives during the discussion which will play vital role in the sustainable growth and success of the sport in Asia.
“It is my great pleasure to welcome all of you both in person and online to the AVC Referee Committee Meeting. This gathering marked an important milestone since this is the first meeting after the recent AVC Election. With many new members joining the Committee, I look forward to first perspective and volleyball contribution that will drive the continued growth and success of volleyball and beach volleyball officiating or refereeing across Asia. The referees in our sport are crucial. Your expertise and dedication ensure the diversity, integrity and fairness of our competitions,” Mr Suzara was quoted as saying in his speech.
AVC President Mr Ramon Suzara
“Through this meeting, we have an opportunity to exchange the knowledge, discuss the latest development in refereeing and align on strategies and enhance the standard of refereeing in AVC events. Your inputs should be instrumental in shaping the future officiating and maintaining the high level of professionalism in our sport. I encourage all of you to actively participate, show your insights and collaborate as we work together to strengthen initiating our programs. Your commitment to upholding the principle of the fairness and excellence will play a key role in the continued success of AVC events. Now with the new leadership, I’m pushing to have more presence of AVC referees in the next four years in all FIVB competitions, not necessary the high level but we start with the underage championships. This also includes more of the beach volleyball referees. So, I would like to ask all of you to work much harder so we can have more Asian referees in high-level FIVB competitions,” added the AVC President.
AVC Secretary General Mr Hugh Graham
AVC Secretary General Mr Graham also had a speech to all participants, “I have pleasure to be the new AVC Secretary General under the leadership of Mr Ramon Suzara. Here to learn, but also to serve your Chairman, your Secretary and all of you to have where AVC can help under the leadership and guidance all out about the President.”
AVC RC Chairman Mr Dean Turner
Chairman Mr Dean Turner insisted that as AVC President Mr Suzara needs to see more Asian referees participate in more FIVB events, the Committee has to work hard to prepare the referees towards the right level with the right skill to be able to progress to the FIVB competitions.
“Let’s come up with your new ideas and be more positive. If you have idea, please pay it forward because we need many different ideas and we need to be thinking outside the box. We just can’t continue to do for whatever we’ve done. We need to be developing our new ideas on how we can help our refereeing members become referees and get opportunities further on,” Mr Turner stated.
“As a referee coach, our job is to help them (referees) grow. Our job is to help them understand. Our job is to help them help themselves. We have to educate them to be leaders. We have to educate them to understand and better assess their own performance. We should give them information and the tools so they can get through the end by themselves,” the Committee Chairman stressed.
AVC Secretary General Mr Hugh Graham, left, and Mr Kritsada Panaseri
Though their technical and tactical parts of the game are very good, the referees’ problem is the English skill. Mr Turner said it’s very necessary to find ways to help referees understand and speak in English more often and make them more confident. As coaches to referees, they have to give those referees more times to speak as much as they can while learning and understanding technology, modernizing the sport and making it more innovative and attractive for the fans.
It’s necessary, he said, that the Committee Members be split into working groups to help work on separate sessions on various topics and they have to come up with answers and solutions and that’s reasons why they have to work closely, not just once in six months. So, there is a big change of the Committee this time around.
Regarding the referee coach, AVC President Mr Suzara recommended that there be at least one referee coach in each zone.
Mr Hamid Mohamed Ahmed Alrousi Alhammadi
During the meeting, a number of important topics were raised for free discussion including volleyball officiating, referee education, women in officiating as well as relevant work areas including the shortage of female officials and beach officials, categorization review – AVC referees and Asian International Referee Candidates Course (AIRCC). Each member was also given a chance to speak out on certain areas.
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