Cluster 1 of the RLEF Leadership Devolution Project concluded its Latvian activities with a match officials tutor training seminar in Sigulda, outside the capital city, Riga. Three Spanish trainees, one German and two Poles joined the two Latvian tutor-trainees, who delivered a Level 1 course to five new Latvian match officials on Saturday.

“This was a fantastic and busy weekend in beautiful surroundings,” commented RLEF Match Officials Manager Tom Mather, who was joined by his Ukrainian colleague, Denys Cherniev, himself a graduate of the RLEF tutor-training programme and now a member of the federation’s match officials development squad.

“It was great to get such a diverse range of nations and experiences together for the weekend,” continued Mather,  “and it was even better to see some local officials put through their paces officiating on a game on the Sunday, having been trained by a Latvian tutor- a first for this programme. “

The trainees were Nauris Baumanis and Viktors Silvoniks (Latvia), Jacek Galeza and Lukasz Lucka (Poland), Ezequiel Perez Fuster, Cristian Maurin and Antonio Palacios (Spain), and Simon Cooper (Germany). The next phase of this cluster will commence in 2015, with two activities in Poland.