25 Nov 2019

Cancellation of league games due to non-availability of referees might be a thing of the past after Botswana Football Association (BFA) took a decision to train 35 women referees.

Referees, who are from different parts of the country, are expected to make a change upon completion of their intermediate course conducted by FIFA’s referee instructor, Carlos Henriques.

Henriques said in an interview that the course was meant for only women, and they hoped to see progress as they would be going back to their different regions.

He said the referees were going through the 17 rules of the game, adding that more emphasis was on the most critical part of the game, as that was where all spectators were interested in.

Furthermore, Henriques said the 17 rules of the game included penalty kicks, free kicks, throw ins, goal kicks and corner kicks.

The FIFA instructor said it was time for all federations to empower women football, which he said had been ignored for a long time.

He said FIFA had always advocated for empowerment of women football and their mission was to increase the level of female participation in women football,

“I think and believe that as different stakeholders we have to do more for women football, and I think this is a great step taken by the BFA to train women referees,” he said.

BFA referee manager, Jonti Rasetsoga said women football over the years had been neglected, adding that as BFA they found it befitting to give women support.

He said they had been experiencing shortage of women referees and that the course would help fill the gap.

Furthermore, Rasetsoga said although the graduates would be expected to adjudicate in all football structures, most of the referees would be deployed to women football where they had been experiencing problems of game cancelations. Ends