THE storm around television presenters in England over their comments regarding female officials has not deterred aspirant match officials in South Africa.

Sky Sports presenters Andy Gray and Richard Keys were sacked after their "sexist" comments directed at referee's assistant Sian Massey during a match between Liverpool and Wolves recently.

Safa's head of sports science on the referee's technical committee Khatija Bahdur said they ran a workshop in Durban at the weekend, running from Friday until Sunday, whose main focus was on the development of women referees.

Bahdur said the workshop was a great success. The women who attended showed interest in being both referees and assessors.

"The turnout was really good and I was impressed by their enthusiasm. We can build on what we have achieved," Bahdur said.

She pointed to Premier Soccer League referee Deidre Mitchell and two referee's assistants, Bwaitse Manca and Nomvula Masilela, who are on the international referee's panel, as their success stories.

"We hope to have more women in sport. Currently, most of them are in the lower leagues and if they perform well, they can make their way up in the rankings."

Bahdur said many challenges faced female referees, including sexism. "There are issues facing women officials. They are sometimes told that they do not know what they are doing. But we have identified these problems and what we are doing is psychological strengthening, to easily cope with such problems."