Trustin Farrugia Cann and Malcolm Spiteri at Dallas Cup

From 9 to 16 April 2017, international referee Trustin Farrugia Cann and Elite referee Malcolm Spiteri participated in the prestigious Dallas Cup 2017 tournament held in the United States of America.

The Dr Pepper Dallas Cup – commonly known as the Dallas Cup – is an annual international football tournament for invited youth teams. The tournament was established in 1980and is held in Dallas, Texas, with FC Dallas serving as its host club. The Cup has tournaments for age groups ranging from Under-13 to Under-19.

Apart from our own referees, several other officials from around the globe were present, amongst whom 28 holding the FIFA badge. Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Japan and the USA all had refereeing representatives for this one of the biggest youth tournaments.

During the event, CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) Head of Refereeing Brian Hall, organised a one-day seminar during which dvd clips of match situations were analysed and discussed.

The Maltese officials controlled two particular important matches: Trustin Farrugia Cann officiated the Super Group Under-19 semi-final between FC Dallas (USA) and Corbita (Brasil) played at Toyota Stadium; while Malcolm Spiteri controlled the Under-18 quarter-final between two USA teams – Baltimore Celtics vs New Jersey.