FAM has urged the country’s FIFA listed referees to work hard and aim for CAF and FIFA Elite A status to be considered for major football tournaments.

FAM Executive Member and Chairperson of the Technical Subcommittee Tiya Somba Banda said this on Thursday when he presented the 2021 FIFA Referee badges to Southern Region-based referees.

“We want to encourage our referees to work hard and stay disciplined so that they should qualify for the CAF Elite A and eventually FIFA Elite A status to enable them be selected to officiate at CAF and FIFA final tournaments.

“They should maintain good character both on and off the pitch and continue with the best performance on the pitch so that upcoming referees should emulate them and also teams should have confidence with them whenever they are officiating matches,” said Somba Banda.

Currently, Clemence Kanduku is the only male referee with a CAF Elite A certificate while female assistant referee Bernadette Kwimbira is the only referee with both FIFA Elite A and CAF Elite A credentials

FIFA approved 15 Malawian referees for the 2021 International Referees Panel, five of them from the Southern region, seven from the central region and three from the Northern region.

The presentation of badges to Central and Northern based referees took place last month.