Durban - Sixty females from around South Africa attended a workshop aimed at increasing the number of women taking charge of PSL matches in the form of referees and assessors.
The South African Football Association (SAFA) held the three day workshop to empower and develop female referees.
With hopes that these women will become highly qualified CAF and FIFA officials and assessors, focus was placed on developing and enhancing practical skills and football knowledge. The workshop also included physical and psychological training exercises.
"This is a historic occasion for us as the South African Football Association. We have never had a course that is exclusively designed to cater for female referees, and this comes at a time when we wanted to reach out to all regions of the country and develop female referees," said chairperson of the referees committee, Alpha Mchunu.
SAFA's head of referees, Adeel Carelse, told BuaNews that the institution wants to increase the quantity of female referees and the quality of the existing officials.
"We want to reposition the direction of female referees in South Africa through training and development at this annual workshop. We want to train 54 referees and 10 assessors and see them apply the skills in their various provinces before inviting them to the national referees' seminar in June; where the selection of the national panel of referees will be done," said Carelse.
Mchunu added: "I am satisfied that we have made a good step forward in terms of closing the gender gap when it comes to officiating. We have had courses in the past that catered for male referees, now we want to look at increasing the pool of female referees and assessors nation-wide."
The chairperson of Women's Football at SAFA, Nomsa Mahlangu, also attended the workshop to encourage the women as they go into their respective fields of officiating and assessing.
According to SAFA officials, the workshop will be held annually.
