Football is played all over the world, in almost every school it´s a basic sport for boys, and also girls’ football is increasing. As a big team-game Football includes beside all technical skills some basic educational goals: social contacts, team spirit, fairness, respect, dealing with rules, sense of justice, personality development (self consciousness, self assessment, the focus) ….
So Football was predestined to become one of the big basic sports in ISF, where school teams can compare sport worldwide and get social contact with hundreds of different pupils during the event.
My Route to the Spirit of ISF
As a teacher of physical education for 13 years at a high school with a focus on sports my first contact with ISF was 1995 in Treviso/ITA. As the head coach of 3 (out of 4) Austrian school teams in alpine skiing I could learn the spirit of ISF, which is more than the sporting performance (double vice-champion), the social contact between different teams is what it matters, what pupils speak about many years later: the personal contact with other pupils in foreign languages and all the experiences in the social events.
On my way in ISF I felt this spirit at all stages, where I have been, as coach in Skiing, as head of delegation in Skiing and Football, as TC member in Football and as TC President for Football and Futsal.
Technical Committee Football: Hard work and deep friendship
The mission of an ISF TC is to accompany the local OC organizing the respective ISF World Championships, to cooperate with the OC and lead them to a high standard in competitive organisation.
During the event there is hard work for the TC: organizing and evaluating 40 referees, acting as 4th official on every match in a championship with up to 40 teams, handling sport related incidents and discussing organizational details in (twice) daily meetings in cooperation with the OC.
But there is another aspect in this Football TC making it very strong: a personal friendship between the TC members. I learned this friendly relationship inside the Football TC for the first time 2005 in Skaerbaek/DEN as Head of the Austrian Delegation, and in 2007 in Santiago/CHI I joined the TC and became part of it. Since 2012 as President of TC Football I try to continue in the same way: Hard work at the events and deep friendship inside the TC.
Future plans: Young Referees and a strong TC Futsal
One goal in future is to develop the systematic employment of Young Referees in our Championships, like France has done for some time in ISF Football. Therefore we need help from UEFA to get part in the training programs for Young Referees in some National Football Federations.
A second goal in future is to make the new TC Futsal as strong as the TC Football. Futsal for the first time will be a regular ISF Championship 2016 in Porec/CRO. For a meaningful transfer of organizational know how TC Futsal is under the same presidency as Football, the Vice president is also a member of TC Football. All other members (6) are new. And hopefully we can build up the same friendly spirit we have in TC Football.