Times Of Swaziland: VAR FOR ALL 2025 COSAFA COMPETITIONS

VAR FOR ALL 2025 COSAFA COMPETITIONS
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Machawe Fakudze on 20/02/2025 09:26:00


MBABANE – Significant progress is being made in the realm of football
officiating. The Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) has
announced that all its competitions for 2025 will incorporate the video
assistant referee (VAR) system. This decision follows a successful pilot of the
technology during the latter stages of both the COSAFA Men’s Senior
Championships and Women’s Championships.
After the positive outcomes observed last year, COSAFA is now committed to
implementing VAR across all its future events. This initiative will provide
participating countries, including Eswatini, with the opportunity to engage with
cutting-edge technology in football officiating. Notably, Eswatini boasts a VAR
assistant referee, Letticia Vianna, who has represented the nation in
international tournaments.
COSAFA Referees Manager and VAR Project Manager Felix Tangawarima revealed that
the use of VAR will be expanded to all COSAFA tournaments this year. He made
this announcement during the opening of a historic five-day VAR Referees
Workshop held in Zambia.“For 2025, all our tournaments in COSAFA will utilise
VAR. Zambia is the first country in the Central, Eastern and Southern zones to
implement a comprehensive VAR project rollout. We will be working closely with
the referees in Lusaka over the next five days, where we expect each referee to
complete a minimum of 25 hours of training.
Certification requires referees to undergo this training,” Tangawarima stated.
Meanwhile, Muzi ‘Rhoo’ Radebe, Marketing and Communications Officer for the
Eswatini Football Association (EFA), noted that they are yet to receive formal
correspondence from COSAFA regarding these developments. “It is too early for
me to comment; let’s wait for the official communication,” Radebe remarked.