Salani Ncube
Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
THE Confederation of African Football (Caf) has picked four Zimbabwean referees for continental assignments, despite Zifa’s failure to put in place a functional referees’ committee.
Top referee Norman Matemera leads the cast of local referees to Kenya where they will take charge of tomorrow’s 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier between the Harambee Stars and Guinea-Bissau at Nyayo Stadium, Nairobi.
Salani Ncube who was voted as the country’s second top assistant referee and Edgar Rumeki will assist Matemera with the reigning Referee of the Year Nomore Musundire being the fourth official.
Obert Mamvura, the Zifa referees’ desk manager said the quartet who are on their fourth assignment of the year left the country yesterday afternoon.
“Four of our referees are on continental assignments and they left this afternoon for Kenya. They will officiate the match between Kenya and Guinea-Bissau on Sunday.
“It’s good that as a country our referees are getting recognised because they have officiated two Caf club competitions matches this year,” said Mamvura.
The quartet of Matemera, Ncube, Rumeki and Musundire is holding their own in continental competitions and hopes are high that with their superb performances, they may be considered for finals of major international finals like the Afcon and World Cup finals.
What Zifa needs to do is to ensure that their referees attend Fifa accredited training and fitness clinics so that Zimbabwean match officials remain in the world governing body’s panel of top match officials.
Zifa also has to quickly address the issue of outstanding referees’ committee and make sure that match officials are tested before the start of the season.
The league programme starts next week but the local football mother body is yet to conduct the fitness test for referees who will handle the Premier Soccer League and Division One matches.
Meanwhile, Comoros referee Ali Mohamed Adelaid will be assisted by his countrymen Soulaimane Amaldine, Hamadi Houssein Ibrahim and Noiret Jim Bacari when Zimbabwe plays host to Swaziland in the reverse fixture of the Afcon qualifier on Monday.