THE observation made by former Referees Association of Zambia (RAZ) president, Welly Chikuka that a refereeing crisis is looming should be taken seriously by the concerned relevant authority.
Chikuka said he foresaw a major crisis following failure by the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) to carry out any training programme at junior level over the past three years.
Chikuka said as a result, he was foreseeing a major refereeing crisis and has called on FAZ to step up its training programme to avert the pending crisis.
“As a former referee and administrator, I am deeply concerned about the state of affairs, right now we cannot have a problem because all is well as we can see Jan Sikazwe at the Africa Cup and Gladys Lengwe at the Women World Cup but the future is what is worrying.
We need new referees and also those that were trained some years back need to be assessed and upgraded. In four to five years’ time we will have a problem and we better look at it now,” Chikuka said.
Of course FAZ, who disbanded RAZ, said they have not neglected the training programme for referees but such concerns from a person like Chikuka, a veteran administrator, should be taken seriously.
We have for some time now just been seeing the likes of Sikazwe officiating at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournaments and female referee Lengwe who is doing well at women tournaments but we need more of them.
We need more Zambian referees to start officiating at international tournaments as the case was in the past including assistant referees who seem to be failing in making a grade at the AFCON since the days of Kenneth Chichenga, a master of three AFCON editions dating from 2006, 2008 and 2010.
However, to achieve those strides, we need our referees to be up to standards with the latest advancement in the game to avoid the embarrassment we witnessed at the ongoing AFCON tournament in Equatorial Guinea where a referee was sent packing.
For those who may have missed the news, Mauritian referee Rajindraparsad Seechurn has been suspended for “poor refereeing” after his decision to award Equatorial Guinea a contentious penalty against Tunisia in the last minute of normal time sparked trouble that saw on-field clashes among players, coaches and officials.
Back home, such scenes were evident during the 2014 soccer season that saw fans almost beat up referees for ‘poor’ officiating and this should come to an end this year.
Of course referees cannot be 100 per cent correct and marginal errors can be accepted and not biased officiating that comes up due to lack of professionalism by some whistle-men.
Investing in fresh blood will be key as well as regular refresher courses for the old timers if the wonderful game’s integrity is to be protected. Clubs like Roan United and Kabwe Warriors ended up playing away from home last season after their fans vented anger on the referees.
Lastly, congratulations to Hervé Renard for guiding the Elephants of Ivory Coast into the finals of the 2015 AFCON tournament. Whether he is a good coach or he just has the right players as was the case in 2012, is something fans will continue to debate about.
Wishing you all a wonderful sporting weekend, for comments: eliaschipepo@gmail.com