Mcelwa Nchabeleng
Mcelwa Nchabeleng
With referees increasingly coming under fire, the Confederation of African Football's (Caf) bid to train more young match officials on the continent continues in earnest at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria this week.
The continental governing body is trying to achieve its mission through a young talent referees and assistant referees' workshop which starts today and ends on Saturday.
The workshop, which will be conducted by Caf's referees manager Silver Kolombo, will be attended by young match officials from football federations from across the continent.
The South African Football Association (Safa) will send referee Matthew Dyer and assistant Luyanda Somi.
Somi was the only representative from Safa who attended the workshop at the same venue last year.
Kirsten Nematendani, Safa national referees committee chairman, told Sowetan yesterday they would also send 18 up-and-coming match officials from around the country to the workshop.
"The other referees are from our lower ranks and are attending the workshop as observers. This will give them an opportunity to have a feel of what is happening and to also learn from the workshop," said Nematendani.
"We applaud Caf for this initiative which will help us to have a big pool of match officials to choose from in the future. We should not have a problem to replace the current crop of referees when they retire. We will continue to work with regions to identify as much talent in this field as is possible," added Nematendani.
Caf's Kolombo could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Caf trains young refs in Pretoria
Mcelwa Nchabeleng
Mcelwa Nchabeleng
With referees increasingly coming under fire, the Confederation of African Football's (Caf) bid to train more young match officials on the continent continues in earnest at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria this week.
The continental governing body is trying to achieve its mission through a young talent referees and assistant referees' workshop which starts today and ends on Saturday.
The workshop, which will be conducted by Caf's referees manager Silver Kolombo, will be attended by young match officials from football federations from across the continent.
The South African Football Association (Safa) will send referee Matthew Dyer and assistant Luyanda Somi.
Somi was the only representative from Safa who attended the workshop at the same venue last year.
Kirsten Nematendani, Safa national referees committee chairman, told Sowetan yesterday they would also send 18 up-and-coming match officials from around the country to the workshop.
"The other referees are from our lower ranks and are attending the workshop as observers. This will give them an opportunity to have a feel of what is happening and to also learn from the workshop," said Nematendani.
"We applaud Caf for this initiative which will help us to have a big pool of match officials to choose from in the future. We should not have a problem to replace the current crop of referees when they retire. We will continue to work with regions to identify as much talent in this field as is possible," added Nematendani.
Caf's Kolombo could not be reached for comment yesterday.