Football Association of Malawi will from today conduct a five-day  FIFA Member Associations (MA) Elite Referees’ Course at Mpira Village in Blantyre.

During the course, which has brought together 35 Elite Referees from across the country, the participants will undergo a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) training.

“The participants will undergo Fitness Tests on Monday morning and the results will also be used to determine who goes on the FIFA list for 2025.

“It is our expectation that we will have high standard of officiation from our referees both at national and international level after they undergo this high-level course.

“We have also taken advantage of the forthcoming CAF Women’s Champions League Cosafa Qualifiers which Malawi will be hosting where referees will be drilled on VAR. So the MA Course participants will join their colleagues in the VAR training.

“The training will assist our referees to be VAR Compliant hence increasing chances for our international referees to get appointments to international matches as only two Malawian referees Godfrey Nkhakananga and Pondamali Tembo are VAR Compliant and licensed.

“Modern games demand to be officiated by referees who are VAR Compliant and Malawi is moving towards that direction”, said FAM Referees Development Manager Fredrick Kholopa.

During the course, the Referees will go though match analysis, penalty area incidents, offside interpretation, positioning and reading, the handball new approach as well as the 2024-2045 new law changes. The VAR sessions will be commencing from 18:00Hrs to 21:30Hrs everyday for the whole five days.

FIFA Instructors Ali Muhammad from Somalia and Mark Mzengo from Malawi will facilitate the course.