The Premier League referees are increasingly evolved according to modern football. The competition in the referee is as fierce as the Premier League. Before each season, they were “locked” into a training camp with extremely heavy, physical and psychological exercises …
Evolution in practice
“Ba, two, one,” the counting sounded from Francis Bunce – a high -level sports scientist of professional arbitration organizations (PGMO) – before he blew the whistle to start the maximum speed test (MAS) has been expected for a long time. It was 8h3 in the morning at La Finca resort in the Costa Blanca area, the temperature was about 30 degrees Celsius, and the boot part had ended for a long time.
This is a whole power that lasts six minutes. “They call it MAS because at the end you only know how to pray for it to end,” Keith Hill – one of the referees coaches, who watched the training session with the referee director Howard Webb – said while smiling.
Part of the Webb hoping to have a time machine, to bring an arbitration group in the peak of 2003, the year he joined the list of Premier League referees, coming here to witness the evolution in practice.
Today, the referees run an average of about 12 km per game and use technology such as Playermaker, the device attaches to the shoe can read the shape running, monitor the speed of changing and detecting injuries. Scott Ledger, who used to work as an assistant referee more than 500 matches in the Premier League, is wearing Adidas Copa Mundials shoes decorated with Spanish flags, suitable for this occasion. This is the third day in the training session lasting five days before the season, but the MAS is a key physical activity.
For 63 referees, including 19 Premier League referees, all wearing the same navy blue uniform, the running card was conducted simultaneously in the two groups on the field.
