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Ricky Zililo, Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWEAN soccer referees are under Fifa and Caf spotlight following their past poor performances that saw foreign referees called to officiate a cup competition match in 2011.According to sources who attended the ‘Train the Trainer Integrity in Sport Workshop’ organised by Cosafa and Interpol in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe representatives were told that local referees are being closely monitored.
The authoritative source said they were told that Zimbabwe blundered by inviting South African and Zambian referees to take charge of the Mbada Diamonds Cup semi-finals as well as the final in 2011.
“Right now our referees are being watched closely and we were told at last week’s workshop that Fifa and Caf lost confidence in our referees following that 2011 incident when we had foreign referees coming to officiate at our games. To them, that literally killed the integrity of local referees and you know that it’s easy to lose trust but to build it is very difficult.
The challenge now is for our local referees to be professional and make sure that they avoid biased officiating especially now that the domestic season is reaching its climax,” said the source.
In 2011, South African referee Victor Hlongwane was in firm control of Dynamos-FC Platinum Mbada Diamonds Cup semi-final match that was played in Bulawayo on 6 November which the Harare giants won 1-0 with a Zambian set of referees in charge of the other semi-final between Zimbabwe Saints and Motor Action in Mutare. Chikwata were beaten 2-0.
South Africa’s World Cup referee Daniel Bennett handled the final of the inaugural Mbada Diamonds Cup which Dynamos won 1-0 against Motor Action.
At that time, even Zifa and the PSL board members were happy with foreign referees’ officiating and said they were forced to resort to expatriates following allegations of corruption levelled against local referees especially when big teams were involved.
Fifa and Caf were closely monitoring the developments which were triggered by allegations of biased match officiating in the domestic Premiership.
The sources said it will take a while for Zimbabwean officials to regain international recognition.
“Even though there are some referees who are good, the general perception is that Zimbabwean referees are biased and Fifa and Caf are skeptical of our match officials,” the source said.
In a telephone interview yesterday, the Zimbabwe Referees Committee chairman and Zifa vice-president Ndumiso Gumede dismissed claims that local referees were under scrutiny.
“That cannot be true because we have local referees who were recently involved in South Africa, Angola and others are going to Egypt soon. At that time (2011) the reason we invited foreign referees was not that our match officials were incompetent but we had our suspicions of matchfixing.
“We cannot say we have completely dealt with the matter but we have done our part in addressing those suspicions,” said Gumede.
He said after attending the ‘Train the Trainer Integrity in Sport Workshop’ in Victoria Falls the challenge now was to impart knowledge to the referees.
Gumede said they were already addressing issues of matchfixing.
Online Reporter