14 Aug 2018

FIFA regional development officer, Ashford Mamelodi has implored football referees to commit to fair-play with the implementation of their new integrity framework to ensure proper governance and alignment to FIFA’s Code of Ethics.

Officiating during the FIFA elite referees course on August 13, Mamelodi said referees played an important role in the development of football hence the need for them to carry out their duties with delicacy to ensure smooth officiating of the game of football.

Mamelodi said the referring course could not come at a better time as refereeing high-profile football game required a unique blend of sports-specific knowledge, physical abilities, and mental skills.

“While mental skills instruction has been seen as an integral element of performance enhancement in elite sport, the application of sport psychology intervention for referees and match officials is far less prominent,” he said.

BFA needed to ensure that referees were given the best possible education for their development which would later on translate into the overall development of football in Botswana, he said.

Mamelodi indicated that Botswana had the potential to produce world class referees, citing Joshua Bondo .

He therefore called on BFA to invest more resources on grassroots referee development.

BFA, he said, should  for grassroots referee development programmes that would act as a feeder system to the elite referee structures to officiate premier league games.

He said BFA must adopt a more robust approach to make refereeing part of football development and deploy a director of refereeing in its structures.

Mamelodi further decried abuse of referees from supporters and warned of shortage of referees, adding that more should be done to tackle abuse of officials in the grassroots game.

“We will be short of referees in the future. What will motivate a youngster to become a referee if they know they will be verbally abused and risk violence as referees continue to be verbally and sometimes physically abused?” asked Mamelodi.

Further, he pleaded with referees to stay away from match fixing scandals, advising that players, match-officials, stakeholders, intermediaries and administrators needed to be compensated properly and in accordance with global standards.

He said meagre salaries had proven to be the prime reason for cheating in football and such payments also needed to be paid timeously with relevant individuals knowing exactly what funds and bonuses to expect. ENDS