Fifa refs urged to be disciplined

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has urged the country’s 15 Fifa referees to be disciplined if they want to be considered for international tournaments.

FAM executive member and chairperson of the technical subcommittee Tiya Somba-Banda made the call on Thursday when he presented the 2021 Fifa referee badges to Southern Region-based referees.

He said: “We want to encourage our referees to work hard and stay disciplined so that they should qualify for the CAF Elite A and eventually Fifa Elite A status to enable them be selected to officiate at CAF and Fifa final tournaments.

“They should maintain good character both on and off the pitch and continue with the best performance on the pitch so that upcoming referees should emulate them and also teams should have confidence in them whenever they are officiating matches.”

The advice from Somba-Banda, who is also Super League of Malawi (Sulom) president, comes a week after Southern Region-based Fifa referee Ishmael Chizinga paid back K1.3 million officiation fees he admitted to have misappropriated.

Malawi’s Clemence Kanduku is the only male referee with a CAF Elite A certificate while female assistant referee Bernadetta Kwimbira Nzika is the only referee with both Fifa Elite A and CAF Elite A credentials.

Kwimbira recently officiated at Africa Nations Championship in Cameroon.