“Be as fit as the play­ers or even fit­ter.” These are the words of ad­vice from for­mer FI­FA ref­er­ee Os­mond Down­er to ref­er­ees ply­ing their trade in the lo­cal foot­ball leagues but are as­pir­ing to be el­e­vat­ed to FI­FA of­fi­cials.

His words came on the heels of last week’s pre­sen­ta­tion of FI­FA badges to sev­en ref­er­ees and as many as­sis­tant ref­er­ees who were ap­point­ed to the 2026 FI­FA in­ter­na­tion­al list at the Home of Foot­ball in Bal­main, Cou­va, last Thurs­day. Down­er, chair­man of the T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA) Ref­er­ees Com­mit­tee, was present at the cer­e­mo­ny along with TTFA Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Ka­reem Paul and Ref­er­ees De­part­ment Head Joseph Tay­lor.

Be­ing ap­point­ed to the FI­FA list as ref­er­ees were Kwin­si Williams, Crys­tal Sobers, Ce­cile Hinds, Tim­o­thy Der­ry, An­drew Samuel, Niko­lai Ny­ron (re-ap­point­ment), and Nathalya Williams (new). The as­sis­tant ref­er­ees were Caleb Wales, Ains­ley Rochard, Melis­sa Nicholas, Kirt Charles, Caris­sa Dou­glas (To­ba­go), Keron My­ers (new), and Shash Ram­sa­roop (new).

This badge is more than a sym­bol — it’s a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. A com­mit­ment to fair­ness, courage and com­po­sure un­der pres­sure.

Down­er as­sured of­fi­cials that they are the guardians of the game. “Your dis­ci­pline, sac­ri­fice and pro­fes­sion­al­ism el­e­vate Trinidad and To­ba­go foot­ball every time you step on­to the pitch. He told the of­fi­cials, “The world is watch­ing.”

Down­er went down mem­o­ry lane when he ref­er­eed at the Azteca Sta­di­um in Mex­i­co many years ago. Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia Sports, he said, 'Ref­er­ees need to be at full fit­ness to prop­er­ly per­form.' He pre­sent­ed facts that stat­ed, “A prop­er­ly fit ref­er­ee in the Eng­lish Pre­mier League (EPL) cov­ers ap­prox­i­mate­ly 7.5 miles (12 kilo­me­tres) in a top-fast game. This dis­tance can vary de­pend­ing on fac­tors like the game's pace and the ref­er­ee's fit­ness lev­el. To put it in­to per­spec­tive, that's like run­ning three-quar­ters of a half-marathon, all while mak­ing split-sec­ond de­ci­sions that im­pact the game.”

“Ref­er­ees in top leagues like the EPL un­der­go rig­or­ous fit­ness tests, in­clud­ing sprint tests (as­sess­ing speed and ac­cel­er­a­tion), in­ter­val runs (mim­ic­k­ing game sce­nar­ios), and en­durance runs (build­ing sta­mi­na for 90 min­utes). In com­par­i­son, EPL play­ers typ­i­cal­ly cov­er 6-7.5 miles (9.7-12 km) per game, with top mid­field­ers of­ten ex­ceed­ing 8 miles (13 km). Ref­er­ees need ex­cel­lent car­dio­vas­cu­lar fit­ness, agili­ty, and de­ci­sion-mak­ing skills to keep up with the game.”

Ac­cord­ing to Down­er, “Ref­er­ee train­ing in the EPL in­volves: - Fit­ness tests - An­nu­al as­sess­ments of speed, agili­ty, and en­durance; - Rules and laws - Reg­u­lar up­dates on rule changes and in­ter­pre­ta­tions; Game sim­u­la­tions- Prac­tice sce­nar­ios to im­prove de­ci­sion-mak­ing; Video analy­sis – re­view­ing games to im­prove ac­cu­ra­cy; The Pre­mier League us­es tech­nolo­gies like VAR (Video As­sis­tant Ref­er­ee) to sup­port of­fi­cials.

Sim­i­lar con­di­tions should ap­ply for the top TTPFL ref­er­ees of­fi­ci­at­ing in top Tier 1 games in T&T.”