Next generation of match officials take part in ASFC COSAFA Qualifiers

The next generation of match officials from the COSAFA region will be put through their paces in a referees’ workshop at the CAF African Schools Football Championship (ASFC) COSAFA Qualifiers in Namibia next month.

The qualifier will be held in Walvis Bay from October 11-13 and see nine countries send not only their best young players, but also their most promising match officials too.

The competition, at the national, zonal and continental stages, offers this opportunity to young match officials as an entry point into international competition and for several it will be the start of a long career as a referee or assistant referee.

According to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) guidelines for the 2024/25 AFSC, Member Associations through their Head of Refereeing appoint referees and assistant referees for the national phase, where the best players in each country are identified.

The young referees should be approximately the same age as the players and selected from the CAF Young Referees Programme.

Last year in Zimbabwe, a total of 31 young referees aged 15 and upwards took part in the training ahead of the AFSC COSAFA zonal qualifier. They then took to the field to officiate in matches at the zonal qualifiers in Harare.

The CAF Young Referee’s Programme comes with the realisation that not all aspiring footballers will turn professional, but through such programmes, they can still remain a part of the Beautiful Game.

Key to the programme at this level is the basic introduction and understanding of the Laws of the Game, which is accompanied by practical illustrations led by highly experienced CAF Refereeing instructors.

The course in Harare was led by renowned COSAFA Referees Manager and FIFA Instructor Felix Tangawarima, who has developed some of the continent’s leading match officials in the last two decades.

“This is the foundation of refereeing and where we start them young. It is a very important tournament for COSAFA from that point of view,” Tangawarima says. “The referees that have gone to the World Cup, we start them here.

“Because we are dealing with an Under-15 tournament, we feel it is important that the same age-group, or thereabouts, must officiate.

“We want them to understand the theoretical part of situations. We show the referees the match situations in class, and then transmit that onto the field of play. They need to understand the concept, what is it they have seen and what happened.

“I am always visiting countries, looking at young referees. As I go around the zone, I also use my local instructors within the country to identify talent. We are building (capacity) for the national association, for COSAFA, for CAF and for FIFA.”

Courses at the CAF African Schools Football Championship COSAFA Qualifiers are also held for coaches and young reporters, to go with medical and safeguarding workshops.