The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system will be introduced at this year’s Cosafa Women’s Championship slated for October 4 to 15 in Gauteng, South Africa.
Cosafa announced this in a statement released yesterday ahead of the regional showpiece.
However, VAR will be used from the semi-finals at this year’s Cosafa Women’s Championship.
“It is the first time the system has been used in a Cosafa tournament— albeit the semi-finals onwards—with the plan to introduce it for all tournaments in the future,” the statement reads.
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The statement further states that Cosafa Referees Manager Felix Tangawarima is running a five-day all female course for VAR training for the referees.
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“Cosafa has had the will to have the VAR project at our tournaments and finally it has arrived. Within the referees in our region, we have already registered approved officials for VAR.
“For a referee to be licenced, they must have had 25 hours of training. We will have done a five-day preparatory course simply because a number are encountering VAR for the first time,’’ Tangawarima said.
The course will be both theory and practical.
Cosafa General Secretary Sue Destombes said the introduction of the VAR project will change the face of Cosafa.
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“Caf and Fifa are looking for licenced officials and we do not want referees from the region to be left out. We want them to be on the same footing as their peers across the continent. Cosafa will be one of the first regions to implement VAR for its tournaments. There are only some North African countries who have it already. So, this is very exciting for us and the referees. I think they cannot wait to use it in matches,’’ Destombes said.
Malawi Women’s National Football Team, the Scorchers, will face hosts South Africa tomorrow at Dobsonville Stadium in their opening match. They will meet eSwatini in their second match of the tournament before wrapping up the group stage against Madagascar.
Group winners and the overall best runner-up will qualify for the semi-finals
