Ben William's London Olympic update

Evening everyone,

Been thinking on what to do in the off season (the other 51 weeks of the year until Kanga 2013) with the blog, and figured that with so many up and comer's from this year's Kanga RYA getting games at State / National levels, there may be some interest in keeping up with each other's officiating adventures through this medium. 

Here's a quick update

Ben William (FIFA Ref who spoke on Sunday night) flew out to London on 19th July and sent out this group email - really informative about his pathway so far.

Hi All,

Well, the day has finally arrived. After 20 years of refereeing and over 3 months since finding out that I was appointed to referee at the 2012 London Olympic Games, the day to jump on that plane, has finally arrived!

It has taken a while for the excitement to build for this tournament, as initially it seemed so far off, with many difficult training sessions in the cold Canberra winter ahead. However, over the past few weeks when the TV ads about London and the stories of athletes etc have been increasing, the reality has begun to set in that this is really happening.

I am so very lucky to have 2 world class Assistant Referees (linesmen) in Matthew Cream and Hakan Anaz, accompany me as part of my team of officials. These gentleman are not only excellent at what they do on a football field, but are blokes with whom I have worked for many years (Creamy since 1995 and Harks since 2002), and I am lucky enough to call my good mates. There have been a few bumps along the way, but we are now fully prepared to embark upon this journey (gee, I sound like I'm on a reality TV show, talking like that!).

We first found out about being selected on the short list of Prospective Referees for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, back in April while we were in Dubai for an Asian Champions League match. We'd just finished the game and were back in our respective hotel rooms in the early hours of the morning following the match. I couldn't sleep after the match and it was 4.39am when I got a text message from my very good mate, Ben Wilson, back in Australia, asking if I was awake. Benny had sent Creamy the same text and by the time I'd replied to Benny saying that I was awake, he had rung me. I answered at the same time as I heard a knock on my hotel room door. Creamy's room was in the other wing of the hotel and when he received the text from Benny, he took off running straight to my room. I answered the door to a very excited Creamy, whilst I put Benny on loud speaker as he told us the news that we'd been selected as one of 7 trios from Asia and one of 52 worldwide to fight it out for World Cup selection in Brazil in 2014. To say we were stoked, is an understatement! Hakan was in the room next to me, so rather than bash his door down, I rang and woke him up, saying that we'd received some terrible news and that he should come into my room. Creamy and I couldn't hide our excitement when he arrived, and he was greeted by the news and plenty of man-hugs. After not having a drink all trip, we cracked the mini bar in the hotel room for a celebratory drink. We rang Australia and spoke to our respective loved ones as well as ringing to congratulate Peter Green and Brad Hobson in their selection as one of 4 reserve trios from Asia also. Needless to say, we didn't go back to sleep until we had boarded the plane home and were somewhere over the Indian Ocean.

The following Wednesday, I had been at school, every lesson on class, and playground duties on top. I finished the last class, had time to grab my phone, notepad and drink bottle and head up for the whole staff meeting. I began walking to the main building as I checked my phone. There were plenty of missed calls and emails. I figured there must be some good news, so I quickly scanned through my emails to find one from FIFA, saying that my trio had been selected to referee at the London Olympics. I was pumped and quickly rang the boys to congratulate them.

Fast forward 3 months and I look back on how the build up has been, and I know that we've had a great preparation. I've been so pleased with the dedication and effort that Creamy and Harks have put in to get to where we are now - on a plane to London, about to represent ourselves, our families and friends, Capital Football / Football SA / Football Federation Victoria, Football Federation Australia, the Asian Football Confederation, and FIFA, at an Olympic Games.

There have been many hard training sessions where it may have been easier to sit on the couch in the warmth of our homes, many hours in the gym, at the track and on the fields, many rainy and cold sessions. There has been time away from our loved ones, much money spent and points used to get us around the country to work together. There have been hydrotherapy sessions, hot and cold sessions in the pools, sessions with our sports psychologist, sessions with our running coach, downloading and analysis of our heart rate data, analysis of our on-field performances, FIFA Laws of the Game Trivia tests, match scenario video tests, offside tests, weekly weigh-in and resting heart rate recording, FIFA medical screenings, and the list goes on. This is the reality for refereeing football these days.

I am thankful that I have a beautiful wife, loving family, great mates, and hugely supportive workplace, that allow me to continue to do this in search of my goals. I am also so very thankful that I have 2 great mates in Creamy and Harks, that have shown absolute professionalism and dedication to join me on this journey, and sacrifice so much.

We've been lucky enough to prepare not only individually in our respective home cities of Canberra (me), Adelaide (Creamy), and Melbourne (Harks), but travel to undertake training weekends together. We have also had matches arranged for us in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra, so thank you to the people who made that happen, and to the boys for paying their way to fly around the country.

We are not the only representatives from Australia, however, to officiate in London. We also had Allyson Flynn and Sarah Ho selected as Assistant Referees on the Women's side of the draw. Allyson and Sarah both ran the lines at the Women's FIFA World Cup last year in Germany, and had the opening match of tournament in front of 73,000 spectators. These 2 ladies, in my opinion, are the best 2 females in the world at what they do. They both officiate in the Hyundai A-League (men's football) and are the only 2 females to do so.

All 5 of us had our final hurdle to overcome in the form of our FIFA Fitness Test, in Canberra on June 16. I had no doubt that all 5 of us had worked hard and it was going to be a mere formality of passing the test, submitting the paperwork and heart rate data, then London here we come. This was true and that box was ticked.

In an unfortunate turn of events, Allyson had picked up a niggle that didn't seem to be improving. She is absolutely super-fit and even with an injury, we were confident that she would have time to recover and still make the Games. The injury didn't respond to treatment and after the MRI
results confirmed that she has developed a stress-fracture in her femur, her London dream was over. This was particularly sad for me as Allyson has been training with me for years now in Canberra and to know how much work she had put in and how dedicated she is, to not be able to attend was heartbreaking. I know how shattered she must be, but to put a positive spin on a negative event like that, I am 100% confident that she will bounce back and recover from the injury, and be back bigger and stronger. She's still young enough to go through to the 2024 Olympics if she wishes! So there will be plenty more opportunities for Al, despite her being missed by all 4 of us other Aussie officials.

Hakan had pre-arranged a family holiday in Turkey, well before our Olympic appointment came through and the week following our Fitness Test, he flew out to Turkey with his family. I know he has been training hard (I can tell by his heart rate data) as well as working on his tan. I think Creamy and I will have to ask him to swim down the other end of the pool in London as my Canberra sun tan will be sadly outshone. Creamy's not much better either!

So, that brings us to today, the 18th of July. Departure day. Harks will fly direct to London from Istanbul, and I am meeting Creamy and Sarah in Sydney.  With my final training session completed in the morning, my gorgeous wife accompanied me to Canberra airport, where she saw me off. I flew up to Sydney to meet Creamy and Sarah. Being platinum on qantas and emerald on oneworld, allows me access to first class lounge in Sydney airport. Sarah was coming from work, so Creamy and I went up the escalator to enjoy the lounge. We sat down at the dining table for a sit-down restaurant-quality meal, and the traditional celebratory glass of champagne. Bollinger was the order of the day. We awaited our British Airways boarding call, and I am currently writing this on our way to London, via Singapore. FIFA look after us and are flying us business class, so we're looking forward to trying to get our body accustomed to London time, then put the bed flat and get some sleep.

We have our accreditation passes and that is supposed to allow us to get through customs at Heathrow a lot quicker, as it doubles as a visa. We're hoping that the recent media reports of 3-hour queues in customs, doesn't affect those of us competing/officiating!

We are not staying in the village when we arrive as FIFA have booked us into a very nice hotel in Mayfair. If you don't know much about London, have a look on a monopoly board and check out the prices of a hotel in Mayfair - that $200 you get for passing GO, doesn't go too far!

We don't know which matches we will be appointed to as yet. There are 24 group matches (4 groups of 4 teams), then Quarter-finals, Semi-finals, and then finally, the Bronze and Gold medal matches. The Final match is on August 11 at Wembley Stadium in London. The  other 5 venues are St James' Park (Newcastle), City of Coventry Stadium (Coventry) Hamden Park (Glasgow, Scotland), Millennium Stadium (Cardiff, Wales), and Old Trafford (Manchester).

There are 16 trios of referees, including us. So, we can assume that everyone gets one match, half of the trios get a second game, then it's up for grabs for the Quarters, Semis and the Bronze and Gold medal matches.

Whilst we would take the Final any day of the week, the reality is that we need to focus on performing well in the first match, and let the rest of it take it's course.

We will be training pretty much every morning, then back for lunch, then seminars and workshops every afternoon. We're not sure how much down time we'll get, so we'll play that by ear also. Matches begin for the women's matches on July 25, with our men's matches starting on July 26. The Opening Ceremony is on a rest day for us - July 27. We may be able to attend, depending in whether or not we have been involved in a match.

Well, we're about to land in Singapore so I'd best finish this email. The next email will be much, much shorter, I promise! It will come to you from London itself.

If you don't wish to receive these emails, no worries, just let me know and I'll take your name off the list.

Let the Games begin!! Until next time...

Cheers,

Ben Williams


The first appointments were released yesterday

Olympics 2012 Referee Appointments Match day 1
26 July 2012

M1, Group D
14:45 CET, Glasgow (Hampden Park)
Spain - Japan
Referee: Mark Geiger (USA)
Assistant Referee 1: Mark Hurd (USA)
Assistant Referee 2: Joe Fletcher (CAN)
Fourth Official: Roberto Garcia (MEX)
Blog Observer: Chefren (ITA)

M2, Group B
14:30 CET, Newcastle (St.James-Park)
Mexico - Korea Rep.
Referee: Slim Jedidi (TUN)
Assistant Referee 1: Bechir Hassani (TUN)
Assistant Referee 2: Sherif Hassan (EGY)
Fourth Official: Juan Soto (VEN)
Blog Observer: Niclas E (GER)

M3, Group D
12:00 CET, Glasgow (Hampden Park)
Honduras - Morocco
Referee: Pavel Královec (CZE)
Assistant Referee 1: Martin Wilczek (CZE)
Assistant Referee 2: Antonin Kordula (CZE)
Fourth Official: Svein Oddvar Moen (NOR)
Blog Observer: Maicon O (BRA)

M4, Group A
17:00 CET, Manchester (Old Trafford)
UA Emirates - Uruguay
Referee: Peter O'Leary (NZL)
Assistant Referee 1: Jan-Hendrik Hintz (NZL)
Assistant Referee 2: Ravinesh Kumar (FIJ)
Fourth Official: Felix Brych (GER)
Blog Observer: Hubert D (POL)

M5, Group B
17:15 CET, Newcastle (St.James-Park)
Gabon - Switzerland
Referee: Wilmar Roldán (COL)
Assistant Referee 1: Humberto Clavijo (COL)
Assistant Referee 2: Eduardo Diaz (COL)
Fourth Official: Raúl Orosco (BOL)
Blog Observer: Niclas E (GER)

M6, Group C
19:45 CET, Coventry (City of Coventry Stadium)
Belarus - New Zealand
Referee: Bakary Gassama (GAM)
Assistant Referee 1: Jason Damoo (SEY)
Assistant Referee 2: Angesom Ogbamariam (ERI)
Fourth Official: Yuichi Nishimura (JPN)
Blog Observer: Carlos S (COL)

M7, Group C
19:45 CET, Cardiff (Millennium Stadium)
Brazil - Egypt
Referee: Gianluca Rocchi (ITA, photo, ZIMBIO)
Assistant Referee 1: Elenito di Liberatore (ITA)
Assistant Referee 2: Gianluca Cariolato (ITA)
Fourth Official: Mark Clattenburg (ENG)
Blog Observer: Philipp S (GER)

M8, Group A
20:00 CET, Manchester (Old Trafford)
Great Britain - Senegal
Referee: Ravshan Irmatov (UZB)
Assistant Referee 1: Abdukhamidullo Rasulov (UZB)
Assistant Referee 2: Bakhadyr Kochkarov (KGZ)
Fourth Official: Benjamin Williams (AUS)
Blog Observer: Turan O (TUR)

I'll try and keep updating Ben's progress and wish him all the best from everyone at KCRYA.