Historic five-day VAR Referees Workshop held in Zambia

The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) Video Assistant Referee (VAR) Referees Workshop has officially commenced in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, bringing together 40 male and female referees for an intensive five-day training programme.

This groundbreaking workshop is the first of its kind in East, Central, and Southern Africa, marking a major step forward in the region’s adoption of VAR technology.

The workshop is being conducted by leading global and regional experts, including FIFA IT Technology Support and COSAFA VAR specialist Ramy Gamal, FIFA VAR Instructor Carlos Astroza, and COSAFA Referees Manager Felix Tangawarima, who also doubles as VAR project manager.

Speaking on the sidelines workshop, Tangawarima emphasized COSAFA’s commitment to VAR implementation, confirming that all COSAFA tournaments in 2024 will feature VAR.

“For this year 2025, all our tournaments in COSAFA will be done with VAR. Zambia is the first country in the Central, Eastern and Southern zone to get the proper VAR project role out and we are going to be with the referees (in Lusaka) for the next five days where we anticipate every referee to do a minimum of 25 hours training because for a referee to be certified, they  have to be trained and go through a minimum of 25 hours,” Tangawarima said.

Tangawarima said the training programme is vital in preparing and equipping Zambian referees as the Zambian Premier League gears up to introduce VAR in the upcoming season.

“Zambia intends to introduce VAR in the league in the coming seasons and for them to be able to do that, we have to train as many referees as possible. We have 40 Premier League referees who will be trained and certified at this groundbreaking VAR proper package. We started a pilot project for the (2023 Absa) Cup final of the Zambian game. We didn’t use Zambian referees because we didn’t have VAR certified referees,” explained Tangawarima.

“We have started, the president has opened already now, and it’s left for us to do it. This workshop is important because Zambia has become the first African NATION in East, Central and Southern Africa to bring home this type of project where the VAR instructors and service providers have come to Zambia to attend to a full panel of referees.”

FAZ president Andrew Kamanga, who officiated at the opening ceremony, thanked COSAFA for bringing the initiative to Zambia.

“Please deliver this message to the COSAFA Executive that we are indeed very grateful that you have been able to come and support us with this initiative. There can be no successful implementation of VAR without trained personnel. This exercise is critical in ensuring that we are ready for the undertaking that we have signed up,” Kamanga said.

“We are already doing a lot of work in our game to incorporate technology, as witnessed by the recent handover of Global Tracking System equipment for all our Super League teams for both men and women. All these developments are embedded in our 10-year strategic plan that we are calling Vision 2030.”