The West Wales Referees' Seminar was held last Sunday afternoon at the Swansea.com stadium.

Although the turnout was lower than hoped, those who did attend heard informative presentations from:

Roger Upward - Disciplinary Officer for the West Wales FA. One of the main points from Roger's presentation was the importance of referees accurately processing all disciplinary matters. A number of competitions have been disrupted due to referees not actioning or reporting disciplinary matters correctly.

Mark Adams - FAW Vice President (South Wales). Probably the most eagerly awaited session of the day; Mark spoke in detail regarding the introduction of "sin bins" in Wales next season. Not only did he explain how the process would work and the support that will be given to referees, he spoke of the experience gained from England where "sin bins" have been in use for a number of years. The English experience of "sin bins" has been extremely positive.

Jack Rea - FAW Recuitment and Retention Officer. Jack highlighted the FAW's ambitious plans for referee recruitment and some of the initiatives that are being introduced to support this. Jack also took the opportunity to remind those present of the website https://www.refereeing.wales which contains lots of useful information including video clips of match incidents.

Martyn Wagstaff - Mental Health Officer Trefelin AFC. The most powerful presentation of the afternoon came from Martyn who explained his role with Trefelin and the tragic circumstances in which it came about. Key elements of his talk were that we can all suffer from mental health issues and it is not a sign of weakness to acknowledge this. Most importantly, however, "You are not alone" - although we may not realise it, we all have a support network (friends, family, GP...even the family pet!) who would be happy and willing to listen and help in a time of crisis. The first major step is to talk!

Ryan Kenny (FAW Tier 1 Referee) then spoke of his career to date and his plans for the future.

The event was closed by a Q&A session involving all of the speakers followed by votes of thanks from both Ceri Richards (WWFA Secretary) and Colin Staples (WWFA Chair). As usual, special praise must go to WWFA Referees Officer, David Rees, for organising the seminar