Young Canadian referees participate in Concacaf program at Under-20 Championship

Canadian referees Carly Shaw-Maclaren from British Columbia and Filip Dujic from Ontario attended the Concacaf Under-20 Championship in Bradenton, Florida. Their attendance is the second part of the Concacaf Program of Referee Excellence (PORE) which gives them an opportunity to be part of the referee team for the competition. Both referees have been provided the opportunity to participate as 4th officials and will gain further experience by refereeing games as the competition progresses.

The PORE program offers top prospects from the Concacaf region intensive training led by some of FIFA’s leading refereeing instructors. The first installment of this year’s program ran in collaboration with the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación (FEMEXFUT) for three weeks in April.

This is the second edition of the PORE program after the initial event was run in 2017. Three of the match officials who were part of that cohort earned FIFA Referee status in 2018. Much of that success is owed to the experience the referees receive as part of the PORE program, including appointments to the Mexican second division, specialized classes in nutrition and leadership, and daily field/classroom technical sessions with mentors under the supervision of Concacaf Director of Refereeing Brian Hall.

Canada Soccer is responsible for the development and training of match officials for amateur and professional competitions in Canada. In partnership with our Provincial and Territorial Associations and sanctioned professional leagues, Canada Soccer provides development and training opportunities to advance to the national list of referees and nominations to the FIFA list.