Confederation of African Football (Caf) continues to snub Malawian referees as no local referee has been selected for next month’s African Nations Championship (Chan) finals in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Caf has selected a total of 65 referees and assistants to officiate this year’s finals.
Malawi has six centre referees on Fifa list namely Godfrey Nkhakananga, Gift Chico, Mercy Kayira, Easter Zimba, Eness Gumbo and Newton Nyirenda.
In addition, Malawi has also six assistant referees namely Clemence Kanduku, Bernadettar Kwimbira, Happiness Mbandambanda, Joseph Nyauti, Evance Msonda and Pondamali Tembo whereas Mathews Ngwira and Rose Zimba are beach soccer referees.
Nkhakananga, who is one of the highly rated referees has been under scrutiny for his interpretations of the rules of the game in domestic football.
However, he has officiated several international competitions including the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers, Caf Champions League, Confederation Cup and Cosafa Cup.
The continued exclusion of local referees in big international competitions should serve as a wake-up call for Football Association of Malawi (Fam) to quickly improve the standards of the referees.
National Referees Association (NRA) General Secretary Chris Kalichero was optimistic that local referees would soon officiate Afcon and Chan finals.
’’We have good referees but they are just unfortunate. The performance of some of our referees is very good so we need to encourage them,’’ Kalichero said.
Apart from Malawi, referees from Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Seychelles have also been excluded from the list.
Neighbours Mozambique and Zambia have contributed one centre referee and assistant, respectively. Tanzania has also contributed one assistant referee.
Malawi national football team did not take part in the Chan qualifiers due to lack of funds.
Moffat Champiti and Bester Kalombo were the last local referees to have officiated at Afcon finals.
But Kwimbira, who is the highly rated female referee has officiated at several international events including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games and Fifa Women’s World Cup.
