In the latest edition of Behind the Whistle, Football Queensland (FQ) caught up with former professional referee Peter Green to discuss his journey to the role of FQ Referee Coach, and his goals for the year ahead.
From being appointed to the FIFA Panel in 2006 and Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Panel in 2008, to receiving the AFC Referees Memento Award in 2019 just after retiring, Green has conducted a long and successful career, leading to his recent appointment as Referee Coach with Football Queensland.
“It’s something I’m really passionate about, I’ve obviously been a referee for a long time now and I’m really looking forwards to getting stuck into it,” Green said.
Starting his referee journey at 16, Green went on to officiate many elite games with some career highlights including A-League Grand Finals during the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 seasons, and the 2019 AFC Asian Cup held in the UAE.
Green said that coaching wasn’t something he originally considered as a career, however after retiring from the A-League in 2019 he was offered a referee coaching position with Football Australia for the men and women elite competitions.
“It was an opportunity that I thought was really good for me and I was really keen to remain involved in the game; this role allowed me to stay involved at the highest level without the travel and time away from home that comes with being a match official,” Green said.
“I think this is an exciting time for Queensland with the national second division set to kick off in the next 18 months and that creates opportunities for officials right across Queensland.”
“My goal is to continue that production line of top-quality match officials from Queensland into the elite and national levels, we’ve got a pretty proud history of producing high level officials here and I see my job as being an opportunity to contribute to that.”
With the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™, Green is excited to become part of the team that shapes the next generation of referees that are inspired by the international tournament.
“I think the FIFA Women’s World Cup will definitely create a lot of excitement and hopefully as match officials we can capitalise off some of that excitement; there’s going to be a lot of young boys and girls who are going to want to start playing when they experience the World Cup and hopefully some will see refereeing and officiating as a viable career option.”
Green said becoming a referee is a journey that has its ups and downs like most careers, with building resilience and confidence to take negative comments gracefully and move on from on-field events a top priority.
“There’s a lot of passion in the game and sometimes that spills over and referees cop the full force of that,” Green said.
“I think for me, I copped my fair share of it, but I think you’ve got to have tough skin and be able to block that out and just concentrate on what you do and just understand that people will get passionate from time to time, that’s just the way it is, try not to take it too personally.”
Green attributes importance to the number of mentors who supported him in the early development of his career.
“Some of the best support and coaching I received was during training, being able to tell them about something that might have happened during my game on the weekend, an incident, just having that support from fellow match officials is invaluable,” Green said.
“I’m excited to be back working within Football Queensland and getting out there and talking to as many match officials as I can.”