PLE PLANS AWARDS, E1M COSTS CUT

(At EFA Technical Centre)

LOBAMBA – Eswatini Football Association (EFA) is moving things one step further in as far as the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Licensing is concerned.

It is yet another step to one day seeing local football turn professional. On the first day of the two-day historic Referees Symposium in the country yesterday, EFA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Frederick Mngomezulu, who is the main instructor, announced that there would be regulatory changes to the 2019/20 season.

“We are moving into the licensing of referees as per the international laws of the game that each and every official must be a member of the EFA. That is why in the 2019/20 season, not one referee or match official will work without being an official member of the EFA,” he said with the more or less 50 match officials looking stunned at the development.

REFS CHOSE TO IGNORE ISSUE

The referees obviously knew that the CEO was touching on an issue they have always known but some would choose to ignore it on grounds of affordability as they cited low pay for their work. Without wasting time, Mngomezulu put the big question to them – ‘‘Who is a member of the EFA here? Raise your hand.’’
With elite officials dominating in attendance, it was noted that some names did not raise their hands while others did. Worth mentioning is that this also applies to regional officials.

“Don’t be scared. It’s like this everywhere in the world. The football structure we have as EFA is not by us but from FIFA. We know some will talk about subscription but in the whole world and in any sport, affiliation and subscription is a set standard and has benefits,” he said.
This was during his introduction of what the symposium which ends today would be about – it involves interaction and open discussions of topics that the attending officials will be given to then make a presentation on for everyone’s benefit.

things will change

Mngomezulu was later asked about the statistics of the officials who were currently official members but said that was yet to be established with their association, which is responsible for their membership at EFA.

“As of next month, things will change. We want all referees or match officials to carry membership cards while we’ll also want proof they have fully subscribed. We started with coaches who had their symposium four years ago and now they are not worried about it,” he said.

He said they would also review the officials’ work last season and look forward to next season among other things. Referees Association (RA) Chairman Sipho Kunene said the referees’ licensing was welcome and they were grateful to the EFA for the inaugural symposium.

“It will give us direction as we look forward to next season. It is also true that we must all be affiliated and subscribed to be official members of the EFA and that only happens through the Referees Association. We have at least 42 official referees and 52 when including match commissioners,” he said.

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