Helpys Raymundo Feliz is a special being, he has 8 siblings and three dreams. He is the only son shared by his procreators and his mother’s only treasure.
Professor Victoria Cuevas took him by the hand, he was father and mother, he taught her to persevere as the only way to turn dreams into reality.
“Now that this opportunity has come to me, which more than a blessing is a great commitment for me and for the country, in which I cannot fail, I have to tell my mother that my first dream is coming true, to go to a World Cup.
“I was very upset because I used to work in the Sports area of the Air Force, but they fired me (and many other athletes) after I sacrificed more than six years organizing and teaching the fundamentals of this discipline, Suddenly I got a sick leave working with the boxing team in the physical preparation and rehabilitation part… I can’t hide it, the news of going to the World Cup comforts me, but it is a great responsibility, to put this small country on the World Cup map for the first time as a technician and opening the door to our talent, that makes me forget any other stumbling block and know that things are achieved by working”, explained Victoria’s son.
passion in sport
He grew up in Invivienda and football never caught his attention, he was in love with the 10 thousand meters (10 kilometers), high jump and a little swimming in his university life in APEC, where he graduated from Marketing and achieved a technician in Tourism. But his academic plans disappeared when his sports mentor Roque García, who suggested the first soccer seminar.
“It was Roque who got me into this, I did well in that seminar and then the federation included me in another FIFA seminar for ‘projected referees’ in Panama, from there everything continued with ups and downs, because nothing here has been fortuitous, work has been done so that the country could achieve this goal”, explains Helpys, 32 years old.
The other two dreams to be pursued by Feliz is to participate in the Olympic Games and to be the first immortal official of the Dominican sport in soccer.
The pioneer FIFA
In this way he became the first Dominican referee to be appointed for a FIFA World Cup of elders.
The fact was confirmed when the Commission of Referees of the FIFA released this Thursday, May 19, the lists of the referees selected for the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
In 2019, Raymundo Feliz participated in the U20 World Cup in Poland.
The Creole is among the 69 assistant referees who will accompany the group that also includes 36 referees and 24 members of the video refereeing team for the ecumenical event in Qatar that will take place from November 21 to December 18 of this year.
For FIFA, the selected referees represent the highest level of refereeing in the world.
“As always, we have put quality before everything else, and the chosen referees have the highest level in the world”, explained Pierluigi Collina, president of the FIFA Referees Committee.
The “Rumbo a Qatar 2022” project started in 2019. More than 50 refereeing trios were analyzed as possible candidates, which have undergone intense preparation. However, the COVID-19 pandemic made this preparation not easy at all, since face-to-face activities were suspended for a long time -reviews the information note from the body that regulates football worldwide.
The summoned arbitrators will participate during the months of June and July in several seminars (Asunción, Madrid and Doha), in which they will review and analyze videos of real match situations, and will participate in practical training sessions with soccer players, which will be recorded so that the participants receive immediate feedback from the instructors.
Helpys Raymundo Feliz also made history for Dominican arbitration on May 4 when he was designated by the Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean for the second leg of the 2022 Concacaf Champions League final, an unprecedented event.