Pretoria - With only 38 days left before the kick-off of the FIFA Confederations Cup South Africa 2009, match officials, who will referee the tournament's matches, have been confirmed.
The 30 match officials, who represent all six confederations, were selected from a list of prospective candidates for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa.
Preparations for the match officials have been conducted under the guidance of FIFA's Refereeing Assistance Programme (RAP), which was approved by the FIFA Executive Committee at the end of 2007.
The basic objective of the RAP is to professionalise the environment in which referees develop and work at both national and international level.
The programme comprises two distinct but related parts. The first part is the preparation of match officials for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, with practical and theoretical sessions focusing on five core areas: technical, physical, psychological, medical and energy performance.
The second part of RAP is the development of refereeing at member association level.
The FIFA Confederations Cup, also known as the "Festival of Champions", will be played at venues in four cities which are Johannesburg, Pretoria, Rustenburg and Bloemfontein.
This much anticipated soccer tournament will be held between 14 and 28 June 2009, and it will be as rehearsal to determine the country's preparedness to host FIFA 2010 World Cup.
The tournament will see Brazil, Copa America winners, African champions Egypt, first-time Asian champions Iraq, World Champions Italy, Oceania champions New Zealand, hosts South Africa, European champions Spain, and CONCACAF Gold Cup winners, the USA, fighting for the cup. -BuaNews
