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CAF president Patrice Motsepe sensationally waded in on the standard of refereeing on the African continent after the recent Bafana Bafana penalty controversy against Ghana.
Fifa are in the process of deliberating an official complaint by Safa, which sensationally alleged that the recent defeat to Ghana in a World Cup qualifier was “manipulated”.
Safa lodged an official complaint after Senegalese referee Maguette Ndiaye awarded a dubious penalty to the Black Stars that ended South Africa’s World Cup qualification hopes.
Speaking at a Caf general assembly in Cairo, Motsepe admitted that the standard of refereeing in Africa needed drastic improvement.
“We are going to invest in the competitions because our competitions are everything. I had a very good meeting the other day with one of our biggest sponsors. He said to me Patrice please we must start the games on time. Games must be played on pitches that are world-class,” said Motsepe.
“We must make sure that the millions of people in Africa and across the world who are passionate about the game that when they watch matches it needs to be an exciting experience. That’s why the announcement that we’re making today regarding referees is critically important.
“Africa has got good referees, we’ve got world-class referees. We’ve also got referees who are not so good. Then we’ve also got referees who are even further from not so good, but they all try. We want to train them, and also pay them good money and look after them so that they can make a career out of being referees.”
Recently four Ghanaian referees were suspended after multiple complaints were lodged against them.
At home, the DStv Premiership has also been plagued by high-profile errors by match officials.
Motsepe added at the general assembly that Caf would now invest in professionalising the referee trade to improve the standard of competitions. — KickOff
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