PHOENIX

Last year's cross-border NFL/CFL officiating program worked so well, plans are in the works to do it again in 2017.

NFL senior VP of refereeing Dean Blandino told Postmedia as much on Tuesday, after the conclusion of the league’s abbreviated annual meeting.

Last year three CFL referees -- Dave Foxcroft of Hamilton, Justin McInnes of Edmonton and Dave Hawkshaw of Kamloops, B.C. -- from May to July attended NFL development seminars and programs in the U.S., for aspiring NFL officials. Each was tested thoroughly, then worked a different preseason NFL game in early August: Hawkshaw and Foxcroft as field judges, McInnes as line judge.

In return, a small group of NFL officials studied up in Canada in the spring, before working CFL preseason games last June.

At the conclusion of the program last August, Blandino’s counterpart north of the border -- Glen Johnson, the CFL’s senior vice-president of football and czar of officiating -- told Postmedia he was “really pleased with what we set out to do” in the program, and said he hoped it would continue.

“Yeah, we’re working that out now,” Blandino said on Tuesday. “We’re going to collaborate with the CFL and have some of our officials work CFL games, and have some of their officials come and be part of our development program. We thought it was successful.”

Might there be an increased number of games worked by each league’s officials in the other’s country?

“I’ve got to work that out with Glen Johnson,” Blandino said. “I don’t know all the details yet, but I do know we want to do it again.”