Taz Alli Award winner 2021

Match Official of the Year: Tazlim Alli

The FA and McDonald's Grassroots Football Awards

We are delighted to announce that Tazlim Alli has won our Grassroots Match Official of the Year Award as part of The FA and McDonald's Grassroots Football Awards.

The awards aim to recognise and reward volunteers, match officials, clubs and leagues across the county who have made a difference to grassroots football in their local community.

‘Taz’ has always been keen to learn, right from the initial training course, to the present day. He is polite and has a great attitude to life, which carries over into his refereeing duties. He would naturally like to get to the highest level he can but knows it is a long journey but is embracing each step along the pathway.

Taz started out in Youth Football, and has progressed into Adult Football, (both Male and Female), and also into Disability Football. The skills that he has, are transferred over to whatever level of football that he is officiating at. He makes himself available even at short notice, which is great for those making the appointments.

In addition to all of his refereeing duties, Taz is also a member of the Sussex RA-FA Youth Council. Part of his role is to help younger referees with their development. 

Foremost, it is his popularity with clubs and colleagues. Feedback is always positive, more often than not, praising him for the way he conducts himself and manages the games, within the Laws. To have such popularity from colleagues, clubs, and peers, is a fantastic achievement, particularly when referees are in the spotlight, often unfairly.

We spoke to Taz a year ago about his refereeing journey so far, where he told us: "For me it was just all about enjoyment. I wasn’t thinking too far ahead and I wasn’t thinking about an end goal, but compliments and confidence started to build and I thought I had a good chance of doing well at this."

Upon winning the award, Taz had this to say: "I am very thankful to have won this prestigious ward and couldn't have achieved it without my coach, Phil Wilks, FA CORE (Centre of Refereeing Excellence), Paul Jeffery, and all the help from Sussex County FA."

To find out more about The FA and McDonald's Grassroots Football Awards please contact:

Awards
E: Awards@SussexFA.com

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