By MICHAEL MIYOBA
FOOTBALL Association of Zambia (FAZ) president Andrew Kamanga has urged Zambian referees to be focused and ensure that they take their career to the next level.
Kamanga said there are no reasons why the country should fail to contribute match officials at tournaments such as the AFCON.
He was speaking during the launch at the FIFA elite referees course launch being facilitated by the FIFA instructor, Felix Tangawarima and FIFA physical instructor Mark Mzengo
Kamanga said local referees have enough role models to learn from to take their careers to the next level.
He also expressed displeasure that every weekend FAZ is drawn to the attention of varying controversies involving match officiating.
He said some of the screams around match officiating are borne out of ignorance of the laws of the game.
Kamanga encouraged referees taking part in the FIFA elite referees’ course to take advantage of the well-versed team of instructors conducting the course.
“Our duty is to make sure that there is fair play across the football spectrum. We are particularly excited that we have a well-versed team of instructors that are running the rule on our referees.
It is also gratifying to see a fair share of local personnel heavily involved as instructors. It is a moment of pride for us to see Bernard Chabala, Stanley Hachiwa and the recently retired Janny Sikazwe being among the instructors,” Kamanga said.
Kamanga said FAZ, was determined to make sure that it is in tune with the developments across the game.
After the memorable trial with the Video Assistant Refereeing (VAR) during the ABSA Cup final, Kamanga said the association was focusing on increasing the number of match officials exposed to the highest level of technology and training before implementing it fully in the Zambian game.
