Irfan Kawri on how refereeing is inspiring the community

Determined to help budding officials from historically underrepresented communities, Irfan Kawri recently set up a course at local grassroots club Bolton United for their coaches and volunteers.

Irfan, a PGMOL Football Insights Coach, organised tutors, mentors and guest speakers to guide participants, from a range of ages, through the course and on the path to becoming referees, using an FA bursary.

As part of our celebration of South Asian Heritage month, he explains how it came about and what he hopes it will achieve.

What is your role at the PGMOL and how did this course come about?

"I'm a Football Insights Coach. I support our match officials with football intelligence and to help them develop a deeper understanding of the game, which is a part of supporting their holistic growth.

"I know a few people that work at Bolton United – coaches and volunteers – and spoke to them about their interest in getting into refereeing. It's an important part of the game, like coaching, and it got a lot of interest, so I helped to facilitate putting them on a refereeing course. I spoke to Raj Randwara at the FA, who was looking at bursaries for people from underrepresented groups.

"We helped to organise the course and Arran Williams and Lewis Dawson came in to deliver it. I also have to shout out Sohel Asmail, a really good person who is the heartbeat of the club. He does so much and without his support the course wouldn't have happened. Alongside him is Maqbool Patel, another really good person."

Why did you decide to put the course on?

"Historically it's obvious that there has been an underrepresentation in ethnic minority communities in refereeing. But I feel recently at PGMOL there has been change, very meaningful change. People are walking the walk. There's good work taking place and we've seen referees from black, Asian, female and a mixed heritage background at the top level. But we're not where we want to be, there's more work to do. We shouldn't take our foot off the gas and bursaries like this one really help. Refereeing can support their personal development."

How did the course differ from a standard refereeing course?

"It was different. It was bespoke to the club and the community. Obviously it was a funded course from the bursary at the FA, which Raj heads up, and I think it was great having a guest like former Premier League referee Alan Wiley.

"Both tutors work for PGMOL. Arran is head of EDI and Lewis is a referee as well, who works in the digital learning team. It was special to have someone of Alan's profile to come down and get involved. He was massive in terms of inspiring the participants. Alan shared his journey with the group. Even before he came everybody was very excited, there were a lot of Liverpool and Manchester United fans on the course and Alan has done a lot of games involving those teams. They were really happy to meet him and ask him about those experiences. It brought a reality to the course and those experiences inspired everyone.

"We also had Bilal Moosa, who is a Core X referee from the area. I connected with him and I thought he could be a good role model to come and inspire the participants. He came down to the club and gave them further training and development, which was really good of him."

Have any of the participants begun to referee matches?

"Yeah. They're obviously beginners in the journey and they’ve been refereeing in the local grassroots league, the Bolton and Bury District Football League. A couple of them got appointed for the finals for the league, which were held at Bolton Wanderers football club.

"On a personal note, my children also begun refereeing at the beginning of last season. I have 16-year-old twins – Umar and Aishah – and both of them were appointed to the finals at Bolton Wanderers as well."

How great would it be to see some of these young officials progress to the top of the game?

"That's the dream. There's no reason why people can't dream. I'd love to see that personally and I think everything's there for them to do it. There are so many good opportunities now and so many good role models to help and support them. Things are in a good place, so I see no reason why not if they really put their mind to it and want it."

How important is it to be talking about refereeing in a positive way?

"It's massive. There has always been a lot of noise around refereeing and there always be. It comes with the territory. One of the key things we're trying to do at the PGMOL and our ERDP (Elite Referee Development Plan) is humanising our match officials and drawing that curtain back, raising awareness about what we do and letting the rest of society know about all the positive work we do and that our Match Officials are not just people who pick up a whistle on a Saturday and put a black uniform on then do nothing during the week. Our Match Officials are encouraged to develop and use their personalities and we want to educate people on the life of a Match Official. If we continue to do that then people will show more empathy. I've spoken to people in the game and once you explain to them what officiating involves it gets them thinking.

"We need to challenge negative stereotypes and continue to draw the curtain back. Leadership, Interpersonal Skills, Resilience and Developmental Mindset are some of key areas we work on with our match officials. I see it as part of my job to champion the good work we do and to raise awareness about the benefits refereeing has on personal development, life skills and the career it can give you. Some of the match officials I worked with last season really inspired me."