Malawian refs miss international basketball clinic
Malawi is the only country that failed to send a participant to a week-long Federation of International Basketball Associations (Fiba) basketball refereeing clinic in Maputo, Mozambique.
Fiba sports director Lubomir Kotleba, who will facilitate the clinic and visited the country on an inspection tour of local basketball facilities last weekend, told The Nation on Saturday that no Malawian referee met the essential requirements for the training.
He said although the country had Daudi Suleiman and Richard Chavula as potential candidates, they did not make the grade because they fell short when it came to the number of sanctioned games they are supposed to officiate per basketball season.
“Each of the Fiba Africa refereeing clinic graduates needs to handle between 150 and 250 matches per basketball season locally or internationally to be considered for Fiba international refereeing clinic. Unfortunately, no Malawian referee met that target,” he said.
This means that local basketball referees will be the only ones not recommended to officiate basketball games at Fiba-sanctioned prestigious international competitions or any basketball event beyond the Sadc bloc.
