Zimbabwe referees for Cosafa Cup

Sports Writer

THE duo of Brighton Chimene and Thabani Ruzario is among the list of match officials for the Cosafa Cup 2024 which gets underway in South Africa on Wednesday. Referees taking part in the competition have been going through their paces in Johannesburg over the last few days. These also include Video Assistant Referee (VAR) officials.

VAR will be used from the semi-finals onwards in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth), and also as a training tool for the whole competition with every match having officials work the system behind the scenes to better equip themselves for the real thing. That includes some top match officials on the continent who will take advantage of this excellent opportunity to advance their training in the system as Fifa and Caf become more reliant on technology.

Match officials not up to speed with VAR will be left behind when it comes to major continental and global events in future. The likes of South Africa’s top referee Abongile Tom, who was recently crowned Cosafa Men’s Referee of the Year, Jerson dos Santos from Angola, and Peter Waweru of Kenya have all been through VAR training. There will also be five female referees and assistant referees, including two of the continent’s top officials, Moroccan referee Bouchra Karboubi and Zambia’s Diana Chikotesha, who was named Cosafa Female Referee of the Year.

Bouchra, Chikotesha and Fatiha Jermoumi (also Morocco) are fine-tuning ahead of the Olympic Games that start in Paris next month.
“I will speak boldly about our VAR project as Cosafa,” said Cosafa referees’ manager Felix Tangawarima. “Now that we have received our equipment from Caf we want every Member Association within Cosafa to have VAR-certified referees, so it does not impact us when it comes to Caf and Fifa appointments.

“Right now we are struggling because we don’t have many referees certified, so when it comes to the big games in Caf and Fifa, our match officials are not being appointed. “So what we are trying to do is to bridge the gap between those who are certified and those who are not. We have made progress as Cosafa, I think we are the only zone on the continent who are doing this every year. “This year three of our tournaments will have VAR, probably more than Caf will do. This project will have a big impact on match officials in the Southern African region.

“The investment that the Cosafa secretariat has made in this project is huge and we want to make sure it is money well spent. We want to say that as a zone, we will be number one in terms of VAR in Africa.” Tangawarima said they will use 22 match officials for the tournament.
Cosafa Cup 2024 & VAR referees training

Referees

Sabelo Sibandze (Eswatini)
Lebalang Mokete (Lesotho)
Andofetra Rakotojaona (Madagascar)

Godfrey Nkhakananga (Malawi)
Patrice Milazare (Mauritius)

Mweshitsama Naftal (Namibia)
Keren Yocette (Seychelles)

Thabani Ruzario (Zimbabwe)
Brighton Chimene (Zimbabwe)
Ailton Carmelino (Angola)

Keabetswe Dintwa (Botswana)
Hillary Hambaba (Zambia)
Assistant referees

Estanislau Prata (Angola)
Lucky Kegakologetswe (Botswana)

Mohamed Ibrahim (Comoros)
Zamani Simelane (Eswatini)
Trywell Nyirenda (Zambia)

Pondamali Tembo (Malawi)
Aswet Teeluck (Mauritius)
Kgara Mokoena (South Africa)

Alex Lumponjani (Namibia)
VAR/Assistant VAR referees
Peter Waweru (Kenya) – VAR/AVAR

Abongile Tom (South Africa) – VAR/AVAR
Arsenio Maringule (Mozambique) – VAR
Souru Phatsoane (Lesotho) – VAR

Jerson dos Santos (Angola) – VAR/AVAR
Dimbiniaina Andriatianarivelo (Madagascar) – VAR
Letticia Viana (Eswatini) – VAR/AVAR (Female)