On Saturday 30th June, four Lancashire FA match officials will fly out to Lisbon, Portugal to officiate in one of the world’s leading international youth football tournaments, the 2018 Ibercup Estoril.

Matthew Shacklock, Kavan Hurn, Alex Smith and Matthew Moss will be the four officials who will take part in a first class refereeing experience, which over the course of eight days will give them an opportunity to learn, develop and enhance their refereeing skills.

As members of Lancashire FA’s Centre of Refereeing Excellence (CORE) Group, Matthew, Kavan, Alex and Matthew had enjoyed great success both on and off the field of play which resulted in all four of the officials achieving their promotion to the next level. Being a part of the Lancashire FA CORE programme provides ambitious referees within the County the opportunity to attend regular training monthly training camps involving both practical and technical training sessions, as well as the opportunity to officiate with local and semi-professional football.

The four referees will be joined by our Referee Development Officer Lewis Smith and CORE Referee Coach and Select Group 2 referee Darren Bond.

The four referees will be joined by our Referee Development Manager Ross Joyce and CORE Referee Coach Steve Rowntree on the trip. Lewis and Darren will oversee the progress achieved at the tournament and provide the four referees with feedback and advice to aid their development as match officials.

In preparation for the tournament, we have held preparation meetings prior to the tournament which have involved fitness sessions, practical game based scenarios, laws of the game examinations as well as sessions on how to overcome communication barriers and refereeing a potentially different style of football to what they usually experience. During the tournament we’ll be heavily focusing on developing their leadership and communication skills as well as their levels of mental resilience.

Lancashire FA Referee Development Officer, Lewis Smith said: “As a Referees Department we take great pride in the high quality training and development opportunities that we provide to our upcoming ambitious officials.”

" I have no doubt that this fantastic experience will further enhance the refereeing ability of the four officials and allow them to make great strides in their development and progression through the refereeing levels.”

This is the third consecutive year that we have sent a group of match officials overseas to Portugal and we’re looking forward to watching Matthew, Kavan, Alex and Matthew progress throughout their time at the tournament both on and off the field.

You will be able to follow regular updates about the referees’ tournament experience on our Referees’ Department official twitter account - @LFARefs