REFS ‘BLOW THE WHISTLE’ ON COVID-19 RELIEF GRANTS FROM EFA

MBABANE – Local referees are struggling following the outbreak of the coronavirus.

The referees have approached the Eswatini Football Association (EFA) seeking financial assistance.
They wrote a letter to the local football mother body requesting that the association assisted them with grants to cope under the challenging COVID-19 situation.

Worth noting is that a number of countries in the continent have given payouts to their referees to assist them cope under the COVID-19 situation.
Zimbabwe’s national football referees are reported to have bemoaned a paltry COVID-19 relief payment of US$80 (E1 400) received from the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA).

paid

This comes after Morocco’s football federation paid its referees more than US$600 (E10 500) making ZIFA’s payout of US$80 to its match officials a pittance.
ZIFA paid that amount to each of the top 80 referees in that country. Botswana’s referees will also get a share of the football relief funds, Botswana Football Association (BFA) announced. BFA Chief Executive Officer Mfolo Mfolo explained that the association has just over 500 referees who will all benefit.

Eswatini Referees’ Association (ERA) Secretary Mbongeni Shongwe confirmed that they officially wrote to the EFA seeking financial assistance.
“Team officials have contracts with teams and they are paid. How do referees survive? They obviously struggle and we approached the EFA for help. We wrote an official letter to the EFA considering the referees’ difficulties,” said Shongwe.

The secretary added that some of FIFA-accredited referees were doing online courses and were unemployed, so they needed money to purchase data. “Most referees’ source of income comes from soccer games, when there are no games, we have no income,” said the chairman.
Shongwe said they decided to write the letter after looking at the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the ‘men in black’.

influenced

He said their decision was not in any way influenced by the fact that other countries gave relief payouts to their referees, but they only needed help. Shongwe claimed they did not state figures from the letter but sought for any possible assistance from the EFA.

Information gathered is that the EFA was yet to respond to the referees’ request and the chairman, Sipho Kunene, will meet the EFA executive before the end of the week to deliberate on the matter.

EFA Marketing and Communications Officer Muzi Redebe confirmed receipt of the referees’ letter of request for financial relief.
“Yes, we received the referees’ letter and issues of the COVID-19 are handled as one,” said Radebe briefly.

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