Referees Olympic Football Countdown
Australian Match Officials Jacqui Melksham and Allyson Flynn have received an appointment to a Women’s Olympic Football Tournament by officiating in an AFC preliminary competition being played in Bangkok, Thailand.
The tournament is being held over six days with Thailand, Maldives, Singapore and Vietnam competing to qualify for the Beijing 2008 Olympics. It-s also an excellent opportunity for the referees to excel and show their prowess for upcoming women-s tournaments including the Women-s U16 AFC Championship, FIFA Women-s World Cup and Women-s U19 AFC Championship.
Melksham and Flynn said that this is a great opportunity to gain further refereeing experience especially in Asia and that is was an honour to officiate at the opening match between Thailand and Vietnam. Both officials will be in action again on Tuesday, 21st February, for the local derby between Thailand and Singapore.
Female football participation is at all time high world wide. 20% of all registered participants in Australia are female and women referees now have the opportunity to officiate at women-s matches around the world. However there is always the need to increase female referees. It-s a unique way to travel and enjoy the world game.