The 3-day International Hockey Federation (FIH) Umpires? seminar ended in Accra on Sunday April 9 2006. Participants rated the seminar as very beneficial and successful indicating that it had added new dimensions to their skills, knowledge and abilities.

The FIH seminar conductor, Dennis Perkins of South Africa expressed his satisfaction with the conduct of the programme and indicated his pleasure in working with the group of umpires selected from Ghana and Nigeria. He was full of confidence that given time and more exposure, the umpiring talents that abound in these two nations could be harnessed and developed to oversee the growth of the sport in Africa in particular. Dennis Perkins, who was scheduled to leave for South Africa during the early hours of Tuesday morning, encouraged the participants to see themselves as leaders in the development of umpires and partners of their national Association and Federation in umpire?s development.

The two other resource persons at the seminar, Professor Ediga Agbo of Nigeria and Richmond Attipoe of Ghana expressed their satisfaction with the output of participants and expressed the confidence that together, as a team, participants could change the face of umpiring in the sub-region.

In message delivered on behalf of the Chairman of the Ghana Hockey Association (GHA), Nii Quaye-Kumah, the GHA member in charge of Secretariat and Media Relations congratulated all the participants on their good showing at the seminar. He also expressed the gratitude of the GHA to the African Hockey Federation (AfHF) and the FIH for the support and to Mr. Perkins and his team for conducting a successful seminar.

The seminar brought together, 18 participants from Ghana (Greater Accra Hockey Association -11, Ghana Education Service -3, Ashanti Regional Hockey Association -3, Volta Regional Hockey Association -1) and 7 from Nigeria.