Eddie Chikamhi
Senior Sports Reporter
THE Premier Soccer League have pledged continuous improvement in the quality of match officiating in the domestic league after engaging the new ZIFA Referees Committee yesterday for the first time since it was appointed.
The meeting, which was held in Harare yesterday, was attended by high-ranking officials from the PSL secretariat fronted by chief executive Kenny Ndebele and members of the new committee led by retired referee Norman Matemera.
It comes as match officials in the domestic league have often come under heavy criticism for failing to uphold the highest professional standards.
The league’s spokesperson Kudzai Bare yesterday told Zimpapers Sport that the meeting was a success.
“We hadn’t sat down with them before like we have done with the other committees.
“So, we were just trying to find ways in which the PSL and the Referees Committee can continuously work together well; iron out a few issues and trying to find ways to try and continuously professionalise Zimbabwean football.
“So, it’s just part of the engagements we have with all our major stakeholders. It was important to meet them and discuss how we are going to proceed working together and things like that.”
The referees’ committee is only six weeks into the office after it was installed by the new ZIFA Normalisation Committee on August 1 as part of restructuring process prescribed by FIFA.
Matemera, who was the 2028 Referee of the Year, his deputy Faith Sibanda, Stella Ruvinga and Kuda Rusina were part of the meeting yesterday.
The other member of the committee is Tendai Bwanya.
“Those are some of the things that we touched on and what we need to do to professionalise football and to have improved match officiating and also for our key stakeholders to understand what’s involved when it comes to how the referees conduct their duties and how they arrive at certain decisions during league games,” said Bare.