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Petros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
IN a move designed to enhance greater understanding of the latest amendments to Fifa laws of the game, the Premier Soccer League are lining up a workshop with referees and coaches, which they believe will assist in ending the cold war between the two parties.
The workshop has been pencilled for early next month and is set to be staged following the recently introduced amendments to the Laws of the Game, particularly the contentious offside rule — Law 11— for their 2013-14 rules.
Fifa referees instructor, Felix Tangawarima, earlier this week leapt to the defence of the local referees and insisted that there was need for continuous capacity building of referees, club coaches and administrators to reduce the blame game that has led to the mistrust between local match officials and teams.
Tangawarima, citing the South African Football Association and their premiership as an example, urged the local football chiefs to help create an environment where the domestic game was not tainted by controversies every week based on allegations of poor match officiating.
The respected Fifa referees development official is currently in Johannesburg for a refresher course for 70 premiership and national first division referees for which they have also invited the top-flight coaches to attend, which started on January 2 and will end on Monday.
While acknowledging that referees do make mistakes, Tangawarima noted with concern that ignorance to the ever-changing laws of the game on the part of the coaches, in particular, had a “rub-on effect on their players and even the supporters’’.
This often leads to the fans blaming their team’s negative results on the match officials.
Ndebele yesterday agreed with Tangawarima and revealed that the PSL were lining up, at least, five educational workshops, including another aimed at improving the manner in which local coaches handle their communication and the media. But it is the amendments to the laws of the game and especially the two major texts introduced to the offside rule which the PSL will be paying close attention to.
The major changes on the text of the offside rule deal with “interfering with an opponent and “gaining advantage’’ and the amendments are in italics.
In the old context: “interfering with an opponent means preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision or movements or making a gesture or movement which, in the opinion of the referee, deceives or distracts an opponent’’.
However, the new law has added “challenging an opponent for the ball when in offside position as an offence’’ and now states that:
“Interfering with an opponent means preventing an opponent from playing or being able the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision or challenging an opponent for the ball’’.
Fifa have also introduced delicate changes to the section of the same offside rule in as far as gaining advantage is concerned and Tangawarima said it was imperative that players and coaches are helped to understand the amendments.
“We now have what is called a deliberate save from the goalkeeper and there are two scenarios involved here;
“(i) If the ball falls to the attacker from a goalkeeper’s save when he is already offside and the goalkeeper is saving a goal, it is an offside offence and (ii) But if a goalkeeper parries the ball back into play but not saving a goal and the attacker is already in an offside position, he is played in by the goalkeeper.
“Now interfering with play has also changed because you are judged to be interfering if you are in an offside position and you challenge for the ball, but if you just run without challenging for the ball there is no offence,’’ Tangawarima said.
In the new text on gaining advantage from an offside position Fifa states that:
“ . . . Gaining an advantage by being in that position means playing a ball
(i) That rebounds or is deflected to him off the goalpost, crossbar, or an opponent having been in an offside position
(ii) That rebounds, deflected or is played to him from a deliberate save by an opponent having been in an offside position.
A player is in an offside position receiving the ball from an opponent, who deliberately plays the ball (except from a deliberate save) is not considered to have gained an advantage.
Ndebele said in view of the delicacies involved in the amendments to the laws the league would seek sponsorships for regular courses beyond next month’s workshop that would also assist in the way the game’s stakeholders such as the media, sponsors and referees interact with the clubs and the club officials.
“Most of the time the coaches are blaming the referees but we would want the blame to come from an informed point of view.
“Some of the media statements made by some of our coaches were rather unfortunate and we are also hoping that we can have a communications expert helping the coaches at a workshop,’’ Ndebele said.
Online Reporter