THE team


PT - EN
João Pina
Leadership, Referee Management
João holds several academic qualifications including a PhD in Management with a specialisation in Human Resources and Organisational Behaviour, a master's degree in Psychology of Emotions and a Graduation in Training Management and Technology. Currently, he is an invited professor at different universities and a qualified trainer in fields like leadership, teamwork, emotional intelligence and public speaking. He is an author of different books in those areas and has published several scientific papers in the football refereeing’ field.
João is a former referee who is passionate about the management and organisational development of this area. He has worked with the Portuguese Football Federation refereeing body to establish a Referee Academy of which he was one of the responsible directors for 4 years. This included the development of the mental, physical and technical dimensions.
He has consulted for several international refereeing projects, supporting the federations to define the governance of referee bodies and establish efficient organisational processes concerning the nomination, reporting, observation, training and evaluation processes as well as the overall referee administration linked to a competition management system and a capacity building dimension to support referee development.
João has provided consultancy services to the Portuguese Professional Football League in the recruitment, development and training of match directors since 2016. In the environment of sports, he supports the FIFA-CIES Master in delivering the Operational Readiness module with the implementation of tabletops and simulations in operational contexts.