Story by Lawrence Trusida, Sports Editor
THE newly appointed ZIFA referees committee has come up with a number of new measures meant to improve the officiating of matches in the country.
With the Premier Soccer League set to kick off this Friday, the newly appointed ZIFA Referees Committee led by Faith Mloyi moved in swiftly to put their house in order.
The committee hosted a training workshop facilitated by the respected former referee and former SRC Chairperson Anthony Mandiwanza, with ZIFA vice-chairperson Kennedy Ndebele representing the football mother body.
The workshop culminated in key resolutions being passed to try and improve the officiating of matches in the country following a year that saw officials hogging the spotlight for the wrong reasons.
Some of the landmark resolutions include that all financial transactions related to refereeing will be handled exclusively by ZIFA, and no payments will be processed outside the association’s structures.
As a way of maintaining integrity and eliminating conflicts of interest, committee members will no longer serve as match officials in any capacity, including as assessors or match commissioners.
The new committee has been tasked with recruitment of new referees between the ages of 18 and 25 as well as drafting a code of conduct for all referees which will be binding from lower leagues up to the PSL level.
Referees manager, Joshua Tigere has been tasked to oversee all match officials’ affairs on a full-time basis and will be stationed at the ZIFA offices.
The new referees committee is led by former official Faith Mloyi, who is deputized by Munyaradzi Majoni, while Jacob Kuuya, Makonese Masakadza and Rusina Kuda Chiramba are members with Joshua Tigere coming in as the referees manager.
