Worcestershire Football Association has been successfully shortlisted for the Referee Development Award at the 2023 County FA Recognition Awards for its Referee Mentor Scheme.

The Awards, which will be announced at Wembley Stadium connected by EE on Thursday 23 November 2023, recognise and endorse the best projects, products and services delivered by County FAs over the past season while sharing best practice and learnings from around the country.

A record breaking 242 submissions have been entered from the 50 County FAs operating across England, highlighting continuous improvements and showcasing how they are innovating to improve grassroots football and increase participation across all levels of the game. 

The twelve categories which will be recognised at the awards were: 

• Brand Engagement
• Coach Development
• Employee Wellbeing & Engagement
• Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
• Facility Development
• Football Development
• Partnership
• Positive Football Environment
• Referee Development
• Special recognition
• Women & Girls
• Youth Engagement

Worcestershire FA has made the final shortlist for the Referee Development award for creating a new Referee Mentoring Scheme which provides guaranteed face-to-face support to new referees in order to increase retention as well as ensuring coverage of more matches with a qualified, affiliated referee.

CEO, Nichola Trigg said: “We are delighted that one of our many initiatives to support referees has been recognised by The FA. Led by Jerry Curtis, supported by Ollie Williams and Jack Shepherd, this project has already seen a huge increase in referee retention following the excellent input of our volunteer mentor workforce. We are committed to developing this project further and look forward to continuing to enhance our support and development opportunities for match officials locally.”

The FA’s Head of Operations for Grassroots Football, Tim Foster added: 

“I’d like to congratulate Worcestershire FA in making the final shortlist for the Referee Development award and all of the other shortlisted County FAs in what has been a record-breaking number of submissions this year. 

It has been fantastic to see such a strong selection of programmes and projects entered across the twelve categories, and we look forward to hosting our County FAs at Wembley Stadium in November to thank them for all they do in serving our national game.”

For more information on the work of County FAs, visit: https://www.englandfootball.com/explore/county-football-associations