VAR FOR ALL 2025 COSAFA COMPETITIONS

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.

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