Sharil a beacon for Asian floorball referees

His mother wanted him to be an engineer like his brothers, but he was convinced that his future was in floorball.

Against the wishes of his family, Sharil Ismail took the bold step of becoming a professional floorball referee when he joined the International Floorball Federation (IFF) development referee group 12 years ago.

Now, the 35-year-old Singaporean holds the honour of being the first Asian to referee at the World Floorball Championships (WFC).

He is also the only gold standard referee in Asia - the highest classification for referees awarded by the IFF - and has been tasked by the world floorball body to oversee referee development in Asia.

His proudest moment came when he was picked to referee the 2014 men's WFC fifth-placing match between Latvia and Norway in Gothenburg, Sweden.

For the former national floorballer, the road to success has been quite unexpected, saying: "To be honest, I didn't expect to go this far. But through the support that I got and hard work I put in, it paid off.

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"It's very fulfilling for me to represent Singapore and Asia as a spokesman, and it brings me to many places around the world."

Though he eventually managed to win over his detractors back home, dealing with those abroad was an altogether different proposition.

Sharil believes that Asian referees face a tougher challenge commanding respect from players and recounts being subjected to discrimination on a number of occasions, with his treatment ranging from players refusing to speak to him in English to outright verbal abuse.

Being the hub of floorball, Asian countries do look up to Singapore referees even on the international stage. Professional floorball referee Sharil Ismail

He told The New Paper: "Being an Asian referee in the highest leagues, they have low expectations of you, especially for me coming from a non floorball-oriented country."

DISPIRITED TO DOMINANT

While he admits to feeling dispirited at first, he believes that since then, he has established himself as a respectable referee from Asia.

He said: "At the start, I felt demoralised, lonely even, but now they know me as a dominant figure in Asia, and they know me as a referee and person. Over time, I managed to prove to them that, despite being a small nation, we are up to their standards."

As part of his duties as development instructor for IFF, Sharil conducted the biennial IFF Level Two seminar in Indonesia last weekend, where top referees gathered to discuss rule changes in floorball.

He will be making further stopovers in Malaysia and Thailand in the coming weeks, and will be heading to New Zealand in September to referee the Asia-Oceania regional qualification games for next year's men's U-19 world championship.

Unlike in Scandinavia, where the sport enjoys widespread popularity, professional floorball referees are a rarity in Singapore.

Alongside Sharil, there are only three other professional referees locally, with former professional footballer Oswind Rosayro and the female pair of Carmen Teo and Lin Binbin rounding up the quartet.

But Sharil believes this is likely to change in the future and hopes more will consider it as a career, saying: "Being the hub of floorball, Asian countries do look up to Singapore referees even on the international stage.

"The future will be good for Singapore referees to excel."