Thadeo calls for fair refereeing

National Director of Sports Leonard Thadeo presents Asma Shafi with a certificate for taking part in a five-day Copa Coca-Cola referees and coaches course at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam over the weekend. Photo | Michael Matemanga  

The National Director of Sports, Leonard Thadeo, has exhorted football referees in the country to observe fair play and abide by the laws of the game while officiating matches at various tournaments.

Thadeo made the call during the official closing of a five-day referees and coaches course for the forthcoming U15 Copa Coca-Cola tournament at the National Stadium over the weekend. He said that in recent years there has been an outcry on biased refereeing and challenged the referees to live up to the public expectations of advocating ‘nothing else but fair decisions’.

“After all, this is a career you have chosen to earn your living from and we don’t expect you to be lured by gifts or money at the expense of jeopardising your career,” Thadeo told the young referees who participated in the course. He asked the referees to work hard in order to be selected to handle international matches such CAF organised matches or even Fifa World Cup matches. “This will be great achievement for yourselves and the nation”, he said

Thadeo also urged the young referees to study hard to widen their level of analysing and understanding issues, including application of the rules and regulations governing the game. On coaches who participated in the course, Thadeo asked them to realise that TFF depended on their expertise for identification of                football talents from across Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar. Copa Coca-Cola is expected to be held this month at the regional and national levels.

He thanked TFF, Fifa and Coca-Cola for organising the coaches and referees course. “The government realised the efforts being made by Coca-Cola to bring about football development in Tanzania”, he said.
For his part, Fifa representative in the country Henry Tandau called on all football stakeholders to support and encourage the young referees so that they can fulfill their dreams of becoming international referees.

The course was held under the supervision of Fifa instructors Felix Tangawarima from Zimbabwe and Ulric Mathiott from Seychelles both of whom expressed satisfaction by the way in which the referees and coaches performed during the course.

SOURCE: The Citizen