Referees are in high demand and some of our matches have recently been postponed due to lack for qualified referees. This is a major issue for our leagues ability to provide football for all our players - fixtures for all teams and to allocate referees to games. The FAI is sponsoring a number of initiatives to recruit and train more referees.  

One of the initiatives is to recruit within clubs – which is where we all come in. The DDSL is encouraging all club members and parents, aged 16 and over, to consider applying to train to become Associate or Junior referee. The courses are short and any fees will be covered by the league and FAI.

The new FAI/DDSL courses will take place as follows:

• Thursday 2nd November 2023 from 11am to 3pm in FAI HQ in Abbotstown. This 4-hour course will allow these potential Referees to ref U11’s games. Once they have built up games & experience, they can progress to the u12 upwards fixtures. Register here
• Saturday 4th November 2023 from 10am to 4pm in FAI HQ in Abbotstown. This 6-hour course will allow potential Referees to officiate at games from 12 upwards. Register here

Note that if you do not yet have an FAI Connect account (likely) then you can create one here: MyComet (faiconnect.ie). Additional instructions are also available here: FAIConnect How To Guide. If you are able to take one of these courses, can you also please let Kim know at admin@dalkeyunited.ie so that we can track our clubs participation.