COSAFA referees manager and Fifa instructor Felix Tangawarima has described the video assistant referee (VAR) simulator course underway in Malawi as groundbreaking and worth emulating for the rest of southern Africa’s football fraternity.
Tangawarima said this in an interview with the Football Association of Malawi (Fam) media after the opening the five-day course at Victoria Hotel in Malawi’s commercial capital, Blantyre, on Monday.
The course is preparing the referees for the Caf Women’s Champions League/Cosafa Qualifier to be hosted in Blantyre starting tomorrow until August 24.
“For us, as Cosafa and [the] Football Association of Malawi, it is what we can say is a groundbreaking activity which is happening here,” Tangawarima said.
“It is happening for the first time. We are taking the referees through VAR in a class.
“With VAR, communication is very important and everything we are doing here by the end of the five days, it will be easy to take the referees onto the field of play because they would have looked at all what is required there.
“We are very grateful to the Football Association of Malawi for organising this course, which is the first in the region and the first in Africa.”
The refereeing legend urged the rest of the football associations in the region to emulate Fam’s example by organising similar courses.
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“It is the first in the region and the first in Africa. Malawi has opened the doors for us. We must roll it out to other national associations . . . let us take this to the rest of the region,” Tangawarima said.
He added that the participants would eventually be certified at the end of the course, which would see the referees going through match situations and reviewing matches on video.
Fam president Fleetwood Haiya said the VAR training was part of his association’s vision of transforming domestic football.
He noted that referees were the pinnacle of football, hence the game cannot develop without building their capacities.
“We are very thankful to Cosafa for considering Malawi for this training . . . we do not take it for granted. We believe this will take Malawi [football] to the next level. We have broken the record. Malawi is the first country to benefit from this training [in southern Africa],” he said.
The course has attracted 20 match officials taking part in the Caf Women’s Champions League/Cosafa Qualifier and 35 Malawi elite referees.
