The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
MOROCCO’S football association has paid its referees more than US$600 making Zifa’s payout of US$80 (ZWL $2000) to its match officials a pittance.
Zifa last week paid the promised $2 000 to each of the top 80 referees in the country.
Referees confirmed receiving the payment but bemoaned the low amount considering the sky-rocketing prices of basic goods.
“We received the funds last week and yes it was $2000 bond but considering the prices out there we hope they will give us another payout as football is being touted to make a return only in August,” said one referee.
Local referees only get paid on match days and with football on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic there have been concerns over the welfare of match officials. However, a majority of the match employed elsewhere.
According to reports, the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (RMFF) opted to pay referees of MAD 6,000 (USD 550).
They were paid MAD 2,000 per month for the months of March, April and May.
The RMFF noted that 95% of match officials no longer have any income, as they do not carry out any activity complementary to that of an official referee.
Morocco’s refs were at the centre of the historic moment in November when the Kingdom became the first African country to use the Video Assistant Referee technology (VAR) in a domestic match.
