Men with whistles get bothered

Namibian Football Association (NFA) head of referees Erastus Shilunga has pleaded with club team managers to help maintain calmness during on-field decisions they feel are going against them.

Shilunga said the association does not condone wrong decisions made by referees and therefore has embarked on a strategy to introduce more refereeing courses.

“We have noticed with keen interest the recent situations involving our officials and team members of football clubs.

“I am therefore advising team members to maintain calmness at all levels and to refrain from assaulting referees at all cost,” Shilunga said.

The head of referees in the country was speaking after various incidents involving football team members and referees emerged in the past couple of months.

The Kunene Regional Second Division Football League recently suspended a league match between Khaibasen FC and Khorixas Football Academy (KFA) after a player from Khaibasen allegedly assaulted a referee.

This was not the first such incident, after a match in the PstBet NFA Cup had to be replayed following the assault for an official last month.

The trends comes after several coaches in the FNB Women’s Super League and Debmarine Namibia Premiership have also echoed their concerns over the standard of refereeing in the country.

Shilunga acknowledged that the standard is not where it should be, but says there has been improvement.

“We have received the complaints about recent events and have written a report to the mother body for further recommendations and actions on the recent incidence.

“I must say sometimes the referees are not wrong, but the teams do not just want to accept the decisions and this is what leads to some of these confrontations,” Shilunga noted.

He said the association has plans to introduce more training courses during the off-season in order to improve standards.

“As we speak, we sent two referees to a CAF course in Egypt and one is in China,” Shilunga added.