Staff Reporter
Windhoek
One of Namibia’s top referees Dankie Shinana yesterday headed to Cairo, Egypt to attend the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Fifa referee course while referee Jackson Pavaza left for Zambia to officiate in an important CAF Confederation Cup match.
Shinana joins other new Fifa referees from the confederation that will among other things undergo physical, theoretical and technical tests during the course that starts on Friday and runs until June 5.
Pavaza will once again lead a delegation of Namibia Fifa-accredited referees to Zambia to officiate in the CAF Confederation Cup Group C encounter between Zesco United and Recreativo do Lobolo in Ndola on Sunday.
Pavaza will be joined by compatriots Dawid Shaanika, Jonas Shongedi and Mathew Kanyanga on the Friday flight to Ndola. Zesco United are in Group C, together with Recreativo Lobolo, Al Hilal and Smouha. Last time out, Zesco United suffered a 1-0 defeat to Al-Hilal Al-Ubayyid, a result that left things very tight in Group C after two rounds of fixtures.
Meanwhile, the Namibia Footfall Association (NFA) Referees Department in collaboration with the Omaheke Football League will host a Referees Introduction Course at Gobabis from June 2 to June 4.
The chairperson of the Omaheke football region Ludwig Crooks Nunuheb said the course is important for his region as they faced a shortage of match officials and it was high time they trained more.
“We have a serious problem with refereeing personnel in the region. We only have two qualified referees for the regional league and one of them is on study leave out of the region and the other is an ambulance driver and so his availability too is limited. With this course the idea now is to empower more referees, targeting at least three from Tjaka, Epukiro, Otjombinde, Otjinene, Drimiopsis, Aminuis, Omitara, Leonardville and many more from Gobabis to ensure we have a big trained pool of match officials,” added Nunuheb.
The course will take place at the Gobabis Town’s Library and Resources Centre. For registration for the course, Nunuheb can be contacted at 081 285 9546, or the NFA referees administrator Absalom Goseb at 081 3285047.