North referees hone skills

Referees in the Northern Region have been asked to be professional if football officiation complaints are to end.

Northern Region-based Confederation of African Football (CAF) instructor Alex Mbale made the call on Saturday in Mzuzu when he opened a two-day training for the non-graded referees at Katoto Primary School in the city.

“We do not want to hear that so and so has been beaten due to poor officiation. I ask you to use the knowledge you will gain from here to improve your officiation,” Mbale told the 20 referees who participated in the course organised by the Mzuzu District Referees Association.

The training comes at a time teams in the region complain that officiation standards have gone down following the retirement of many referees.

Mbale said the training was vital because it will improve the whistle men’s performance, so he appealed to them to be serious during the course.

Speaking earlier, the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) referees sub-committee chairperson for the North, Zuza Nyondo, said apart from enhancing skills, the number of qualified referees will improve from 60 to 80.

He noted that the profession was marred by conflicts because most of them were not abreast with new rules of the game.

Winston Chikoza and Kalyoto Ngosi facilitated the course.