After a 20-year career as a referee analyst for ESPN, Felipe Ramos Rizo, leaves television and will take on a new challenge in his career: the direction of Guatemalan refereeing and will travel to the Central American country at the end of the month to be officially presented to the Guatemala Football Federation. Ramos Rizo, with extensive experience in refereeing, takes the position left by his compatriot Jose Camargo in March and was contacted directly by Gerardo Paiz, president of the Guatemalan Football Federation, so an agreement was reached between the two parties. A few hours after making his departure from ESPN public, Felipe Ramos Rizo shared details about the new project he will be assuming in Guatemala. “I agree to go to Guatemala to take the direction of refereeing because I find myself able to work and develop the change of the structure of refereeing in Guatemala. I'm happy for that, I'll have the opportunity to do something I wanted for many years, I'm going to get to work. The conditions that exist are the right ones to work in Guatemala”, said Ramos Rizo.
In the opinion of the former international referee, who officiated at the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea and Japan, two of his main challenges in Guatemala will be the introduction of video refereeing (VAR) and improving the fitness of the referees. “In Guatemala there will be VAR. In a few days I will take a course at FIFA with the issue of VAR that we hope we can incorporate in the upcoming tournament. We are going to try to make the mistakes minimal, preparing the referees and we have to work for that. With video, group and personal sessions, on the field. It's not just a question of Guatemala; it's seen everywhere. I am concerned and we need to improve and work on positioning and fitness. We must have 100% athletes, because today’s football requires the referee to run between 12-13 kilometers per game, so we need athletes. If we work well on the fitness, we'll improve many aspects”. He also referred to the top referees that Guatemala currently has and that they have earned a position at the international level. In his opinion, Mario Escobar fights for the first place at the Concacaf level. “I mentioned that Mario Escobar is fighting for number one with Cesar Ramos because Mario has great results at the Concacaf level. Having Escobar as an example for the other referees of what can be achieved in the referee career, for me is a high honor. The only thing we have left is to continue supporting them and working together. We have two good referees at international level, and they are the example of what can be achieved by being disciplined and committed”.
Finally, Felipe Ramos Rizo indicated that his contract with the Guatemala Football Federation is for the next five years and sent a message to the Guatemalan referees who will soon be under his responsibility. “All I'm telling you is to end the season in the best shape. Make your best physical, mental and use all your referee resources to finish the season. Then I promise you that there will be a lot of work and a lot of follow-ups for young referees. We need to improve some issues, but I am telling them not to stop preparing on fitness because there will be a lot of work that will give us good results on the field. The effort and discipline are something we are going to demand and expect a lot of work from me”.
Source: ESPN
