Berea, Oct 07 — At least 27 referees have successfully completed a five day Level 2 refresher course hosted by the District Football Association (DIFA) Berea during a training held at Teyateyaneng, Thakaneng Youth Resource Centre.
When approached for a comment, DIFA Berea President Mr. Lekhooa Thabaneng during an interview with the Agency where he also expressed a hope for improvement on management of games.
Mr. Thabaneng said the training which started on Friday was mainly focused on strengthening the skills of referees with the laws of the game so that they can remain relevant in the field of play.
He pointed out that in the modern world things keep on evolving and soccer family is not exceptional, citing that during the recently held World Cup, soccer fans witnessed many changes in laws of the game, hence they saw a need to capacitate the referees with the new emerging issues.
Apart from that, DIFA President said the training course was prompted by the mounting critics from soccer fans expressing their concern about unbiased refereeing during number of matches.
Mr. Thabaneng further said the training has achieved its objective and they are looking forward for the fair games, decline in cases related to poor refereeing and peaceful matches.
On the other hand, he said that the refresher course has played a significant role of uncovering lack of fitness among the referees, adding that was a clear indication that many referees train hard only during the courses.
He further emphasized the importance maintaining a physique body for a referee because they need to run their play field and maintain a close proximity with the ball and the players in order make some informed decisions.
DIFA President said the instructors have also proposed to promote at least four referees following their outstanding performance during the training whereby one of them is scheduled to start the refereeing work at Lesotho Women Super League and three of them will assume duties at the A-division league.
The trainees were composed of 23 males and four female referees.
Meanwhile, the league games in Berea are set to resume over the weekend following a weeklong Independence Day holiday coupled with the referees training course.
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