The South African Football Association (Safa) will be approaching the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (Cosafa) to utilise its Video Assistance Refereeing (VAR) equipment in the local league while it seeks a permanent solution.
The recommendation to approach Cosafa was put forward during Safa’s National executive committee (NEC) meeting in Gqeberha last week ahead of Bafana Bafana’s Afcon qualifier against Congo Brazzaville.
Calls for Safa to implement VAR have escalated in recent weeks following questionable refereeing decisions.
Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie has also added his voice for the refereeing technology to be implemented.
The start of the 2024/25 PSL season has been marred by poor officiating which has seen the referees’ committee suspend and rehabilitate erroneous referees.
Some referees have been yanked off the match officials’ roll, while others have come back into the system from suspension.
“Approaching Cosafa is an option on the table, it is something that we are looking at. That is only one part of many parts as far as VAR is concerned. Training is vital, we do have some licensed VAR match officials like Akhona Makalima, Abongile Tom, Zakhele Siwela, Luxolo Badi but we need more,” Safa’s head of referees Abdul Ebrahim told Sunday World.
“The important thing is not just for us to have a once-off VAR in a game. We are looking at a VAR solution that will cover the PSL, which is why we were tasked to form a sub-committee.
“We need to make our proposals to both the PSL and the Safa NEC and then we will decide from there,” Ebrahim said.
“Cosafa equipment is an option for us to use in training as well. It’s not only on-field training but also simulated training as well. It’s going to be a process, but it’s a step in the right direction,” he added.
“It is a matter of the PSL and Safa deciding whether we are going to do eight PSL matches, or maybe do cup finals and perhaps six out of eight matches – I am just using figures and examples. With this, we can put all our budgets in place,” added Ebrahim
“Now we may not need to get all the equipment – it could save us a big chunk of the budget. It’s a matter of gathering all the information, whether we buy one set of equipment and ship it around between Johannesburg and Durban and Cape Town or wherever there are matches.” Cosafa executive director Sue Destombes said she had a brief chat with the Safa CEO Lydia Monyepao and added that they are willing to assist.
“We are here to service all our member associations. I spoke briefly with the CEO the other day and it all hinges on the discussions between the PSL and Safa,” said Destombes.
“From Cosafa side we have been doing a lot of work in all our member association to upskill and train referees in VAR – that is our commitment to all members. We do have our equipment, we have a VAR academy and we do workshops. Our member association can send some of their referees to train,” she added.
VAR is not going to address all our poor officiating problems. We are still going to need competent referees. Abongile Tom missed two clear penalties against Pirates In last years MTN during Sundowns final. This years MTN 8 was a total disaster. Abongile did not need a VAR to make a call on the incident that Pirates ended up scoring their second. We need competent referees. It’s even more worrying thag Abongile has been chosen for CAF games.