The Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has challenged elite referees to use the lessons learned at the just ended refresher course as a stepping stone towards transforming the game in the country.
FAM General Secretary Alfred Gunda made the remarks during the closing ceremony of a three-day referees’ and assessors refresher course at Chiwembe Technical Centre on Wednesday afternoon ahead of the 2024 season.
FAM organized the course for the Elite referees and Assessors in all three regions in preparation for the 2024 football season, which kicks off this weekend.
Gunda said “ We have conducted this course to remind our referees about some of the things that should be happening when discharging their duties. Football is evolving with a new set of rules and we thought it wise to train them before the new season so that they are conversant with the laws of the game to improve their performances throughout the season.
“FAM will not allow continuous underperformance of referees in our game. As part of transforming the game, we will not hesitate to remove any referee who will deliberately try to mess up the most loved game.
“We have plenty of individuals who can step up and do the job. Through the assessors, we will only be having referees who are competent to take charge of our games. Failure to improve will see the association dropping referees for good,” he added.
FIFA Futuro Referees Instructor and CAF Referees Assessor Michael Makoto, who was one of the instructors during the course, hailed the new leadership at FAM for Organising such an important event to prepare the referees for the new season.
” This refresher course will fully prepare our referees for the season ahead because we have tackled a lot of areas ranging from match control, offsides, penalties and many more.
“We have taught all the participants to be in full control of matches they are officiating to avoid chaos by using laws governing the game. We are very grateful to the new FAM leadership for organising such an important event to sharpen our referees who are one of the key stakeholders in the game of football,” he said.
In his remarks, one of the participants Mayamiko Kanjere echoed Makoto’s words by thanking FAM for conducting the workshop.
He also accepted FAM’s challenge for a better performance in the new season.
“This has been a very important course for us to improve our work. This is the first of its kind for Referees and Assessors to be trained in one place before a new season. This will make us more effective in service delivery and we are promising FAM that we have accepted their challenge for a better performance in the new season,” he concluded.
The course was first held in the Central Region from 18 to 20 March. From 27 to 29 March, the refresher course was conducted in the Northern Region before concluding with another three-day workshop in the Southern Region from 1st April to 3rd April 2024.
All the referees and assessors who are on the 2024 Elite Referees and assessors list attended the refresher course.
