As part of Cumberland FA's Planning to Play work the County FA has set up a number of online groups to support the preparation for the 2020-21 season. 

It's latest online community is aimed at Referees who are aged between 14 and 17 years of age and have been registered with Cumberland FA or have attended a basic referee course in season 19/20. 

The Cumberland FA Select Group will provide young referees with a platform to engage with each other and key guests from refereeing. 

The group hopes to offer these young adults with online training session and dedicated guest speakers who present them with the tools they need to become the best official they can be. 

This will include promotion and career advice so that they may, one day, with a lot of hard work and effort, follow in the footsteps of our top officials Ant Backhouse and Kevin Mulraine into the Football League and higher.  

Upcoming Sessions 

The plan is to run these sessions on a fortnightly basis to begin with and we are therefore delighted to announce our first two guests: 

Wednesday 24th June 2020; 5-6pm

Special Guest - Farai Hallam 

Farai is the Senior Referee Officer at The National FA. 

His role supports The FA Centre of Refereeing Excellence (CORE) group which identifies referees with the potential and opportunity to progress through the refereeing pyramid. 
Before this time he spent 3 years playing professional football both in England and in Spain. 
Since then he has progressed himself as referee and is therefore the perfect guest to talk about opportunities in refereeing, The FA CORE Group and a young referees journey into Adult Football. 

Wednesday 8th July 2020; 5-6pm

Special Guest - Emily Carney 

Emily is a Level 4 Referee has been described as an ‘Official on a Mission’ having been voted Lancashire FA's Top Female Referee in 2017.  

She has since refereed a number of Cup Finals including games at Bolton’s Macron Stadium.
Emily will discuss how she got into refereeing, her career to date and future goals.  The session will encourage those in attendance to think about planning for their own development for both the following and next few seasons. 

How to get involved

Parents/Carers of any 14 - 17 year old Referee can request membership and grant consent for their son/daughter to join the Closed Select Group

Email RefSupport@CumberlandFA.com with details of the young referee and the preferred contact email address. 

All sessions will be monitored and controlled by CFA Staff Members. 

They will then receive an e-mail confirming them as a member of The CFA Select Group. 

Invites will then be sent out directly on the day of the meeting to all members with details of how to join.  

The sessions will be delivered through Microsoft Teams and therefore members will need to have access to a laptop, tablet or smartphone to take part in the sessions. 

Further information on Microsoft Teams

Visit the Online Referee Support Page