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Grace Chingoma-Senior Sports Reporter

ELITE match officials who handle Premier Soccer League matches will next week undergo physical fitness tests in an exercise that will also be used by the ZIFA Referees Committee to determine which of their members will be put on the FIFA panel.

FIFA has invited ZIFA to forward names of officials to be considered on the FIFA panel.

This will ensure quick handling of international matches by the local referees once Zimbabwe’s suspension by FIFA is lifted.

Next Thursday, the local referees will have the fitness examination, formerly known as the Cooper Test. The physical examination will be conducted at Prince Edward and will run concurrently with a three-day ZIFA referees course.

The referees course will begin on September 21, and the fitness tests will be conducted the following day before the referees conclude the course with practical sessions under game situations on September 23.

Former ZIFA Referees Committee vice-chairperson, Gladmore Muzambi, and former FIFA and CAF referee, Wilfred Mukuna, are among the officials that will facilitate the workshop.

FIFA certified instructor and ZIFA Referees Committee secretary, Sabelo Maphosa, and the committee’s vice-chairperson, Ruzive Ruzive, and Norman Matemera are also part of the facilitation team.

Ruzive said the physical fitness test has a huge bearing on the referees’ future.

“The annual FIFA-approved test ascertains the physical abilities of match officials. It is highly regarded as it seeks to establish physically fit match officials in the country. 

“Over the years, the test has been characterised by surprises with some top referees failing it. Those who fail the test are likely to be suspended from handling top-flight matches.

“We are supposed to submit names to FIFA after we received an invitation from FIFA to that effect

“So the fitness test has a huge bearing on the referees’ careers.

“Those who are injured or pregnant may be exempted and their names may be submitted for consideration under the FIFA guidelines.

“The invitation gives a ray of hope for Zimbabwe. If the ban is eventually lifted we will have referees on the FIFA panel, and they will not have to wait any longer to be re-considered” said Ruzive.

During the three-day workshop, the referees are also expected to tackle topics such as Positioning and Reading, Penalty areas and Incidents as well as Handball.

Ruzive says they have changed their thrust and will focus more on reviewing local clips during the video clips reviews.

“We will look into our situations to help us in evaluating and assisting local referees. We are changing the thrust from watching more international clips to having more assessments of local clips which should help referees to do better. I believe that the referees can learn a lot of situations from the indigenous clips,” said Ruzive.

The top-flight match commissioners will also attend the course so that their work will be in harmony with what the centre and assistant referees will be doing.

The referees committee has also invited a few Division One referees to attend the physical tests. The lower leagues match officials have a chance to upgrade themselves should they do well in the physical examination.

 Ruzive believes that the workshop is going to be beneficial to the referees’ constituency which has been in the eye of a storm this season due to bad handling of league matches.

“We have noted a marked improvement in the performance of the match officials. The standard is not yet where we would want it to be but we are getting there.

“We have devised a plan whereby we are concentrating on the performers — giving them more matches. 

“We cannot keep doing trial and error, especially considering that we now have relegation and title-chasing matches, we simply cannot take chances and have to give teams value for their money,” said Ruzive.

Currently a total of 86 match officials are on the ZIFA panel that handles top flight league matches. The Referees Committee have since expressed their interest in trimming the panel for quality control purposes.