The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
CLASS one football referees and match commissioners from the country’s Southern Region are undergoing a refresher course in Bulawayo which started yesterday and ends today.
Yesterday, the referees and match commissioners from Bulawayo, Midlands, Masvingo, Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North were taken through in class training at Elangeni Institute of Training and Development. This morning, they are heading over to White City Stadium for their fitness tests.
Sabelo Maphosa, the Confederation of African Football instructor who is facilitating the course said it was meant to rejuvenate the match officials who have been inactive for a long time since there was no action in the lower leagues.
“We are having a refresher course for the class one referees and their match commissioners. We are revising the laws, it’s not that we are teaching them afresh, considering that they have been off for quite a long time, they need such kind of activity so that they can be reminded of the important concepts in football,’’ Maphosa said.
On which areas they were mainly focusing on, Maphosa pointed out that they were looking at the laws amendments, the offside and the penalty area.
“We are covering amendments of the laws, changes that have been made, in 2021/22, we are looking at important topics like offside. They are a lot of concepts that the referees are not aware of so this is what we are taking them through.
We are also covering areas like the penalty area, the incidents that happen in and around the penalty area, the referees need to be prepared, they need to know how to handle such situations. They also need to look at how they can work as a team,’’ she said.
A total of 41 participants are taking part in the refresher course, these being 27 referees and 14 match commissioners. All participants underwent polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the start of the Zifa Central Region Division One League, which was scheduled for yesterday has been postponed to Saturday due to the absence of referees who are attending the refresher course. — @Mdawini_29
