Female referee lays down flag

Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Sports Reporter

AWARD-winning female referee Faith Mloyi has decided to lay down her flag after more than two decades on the touchline in both domestic and international football matches.

Announcing her final departure from the touchline, Mloyi said she wants to leave on a high as she is the reigning Castle Lager Premier Soccer League Referee of the Year first runner-up and could also rightfully claim that she won the award back to back having last won it in 2019.

“I have decided to call it a day from active refereeing. I have done my part to the industry and a good dancer knows when to leave the dance floor. I am the reigning Referee of the Year first runner up, an award I also won in 2019, age is also catching up with me,” she said.

Mloyi started refereeing in Bulawayo’s high-density suburb of Magwegwe.

She was encouraged to take up the profession by her brother-in-law Johnson Ndlovu. And her journey officially kicked off with an advertisement in the local press, which invited aspiring referees to attend a course that was being held in Bulawayo back in 2001. She then affiliated as a Class Four referee in 2002 and rose through the ranks until she became a Fifa assistant referee in 2014.

Mloyi was born in Plumtree and only relocated to Bulawayo after finishing secondary school in 2000.

She stayed with her sister in Magwegwe, where her brother-in-law introduced her to refereeing.

“I also attended some football matches with my sister’s husband and grew to love the game,” Mloyi says.
She has officiated at international Youths Games and Cosafa tournaments and on December 2 last year, she cemented her place among the best referees, when she was named the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League Referee of the Year first runner-up.

Mloyi becomes the third top-flight referee to call time on their career after Brighton Nyika and Hwange-based Hardly Ndazi.

The country’s suspension from all football-related activities by Fifa over what the world football governing body called “third party interference” in the internal affairs of Zifa led to local referees frozen out from handling international matches. Prior to the suspension, Zimbabwe had six centre referees and eight assistant referees on the Fifa panel. – @skhumoyo2000.