Top referees fail fitness test
Southern Region football referees yesterday protested against undergoing a physical fitness test on a water-logged pitch at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre.
Heavy rains yesterday hit Blantyre and surrounding areas rendering the stadium running track in bad state.
However, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) referees desk officer Maxwell Ntonga and referees instructor Moffat Champiti still conducted the fitness test after the rains stopped.
At the end of the exercise, three out of 13 elite referees including suspended Fifa referee Dennis Ngulube and Benedicto Chongwa failed.
National Football Referees Association (NFRA) general secretary Chris Kalichero said those that had failed will not be allowed to officiate matches.
“We have been conducting these fitness tests in all the regions. The Northern and Central regions already held theirs last week. The Southern Region exercise was the last one. This means we have now completed the fitness tests for 2016. All referees that have failed will not be assigned matches until they retake the test next year,” said Kalichero.
But one of the referees, who asked for anonymity, blamed their poor performance on the heavy rains.
“The condition of the pitch and the running track was just too bad. The exercise was supposed to be postponed to another day. It’s unfair to have us undergo the test in such conditions,” he said.
But Champiti said the referees were just looking for a scapegoat for their failure.
“In a situation where the running track is not good, we use alternatives. In this case, we used the pitch, which was okay,” he said.
The fitness test, introduced in 2006 by world football governing body Fifa, consists of two categories.
The first test, Repeated Sprint Ability (RSA), measures the referee’s ability to perform repeated sprints over 40 metres.
The second one called interval test evaluates the referees capacity to perform a series of high speed runs over 75 metres interspersed with 25 metres walking intervals.
The next exercise will be held in the first quarter of 2017, according to Kalichero. n
