ABIDJAN (Cote d'Ivoire) - Africa's FIBA Referee Instructors Program (FRIP) workshop of 2019 concluded Thursday in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, where 21 participants from different parts of the continent met.

Although FIBA regional offices from across the globe have organised the workshop before, it was Africa's first-ever event.

Led by  FIBA Head of Refereeing, Carl Jungebrand, FIBA Refereeing instructor, Simon Kirkland, Coaching Instructor Michael Haynes, and FIBA Africa National Federations and Sports Manager, Pap Lemou Benga, Africa's FRIP focused on providing delegates with the most up-to-date teaching and learning techniques, as well as wider basketball and refereeing knowledge.

The event also included a range of theoretical and practical officiating sessions, which provided a wide variety of learning opportunities for those present.

"As usual, learners were very keen to learn, they came with very open-mind. The key issue is the know-how that they have learned here . It’s not only about these four days, but what happens after [the workshop] is really the key factor," Jungebrand explained to FIBA.basketball.

The former referee continued: "It’s an important event for FIBA and basketball in general because this is the way we can have qualified professional people to work and train referees. It's the same like coach-players interaction."

While FIBA Africa has hosted Referee Clinics in the past, FRIP was a unique experience. "It took us about two years to put this program together in partnership stockholders. So far we have had more than two hundred people who have been to the course. There has been an evolution [over the course of the past few years]. This last course is for sure better than the one we had here in Abidjan four years ago," Jungebrand noted.

Meanwhile, Lemou Benga added: "The candidates have undergone a series of tests that will help us select those who are fit to become referee-instructors."

FIBA