Africa-Press – Botswana. Over the past few years, Batswana have gotten used to seeing local referee Joshua Bondo sprinting down the field officiating in international matches.
That may soon be over.
This year, ‘the Sprinter,’ as the Senete born native is affectionately known, will clock 45 years of age. This is the same age has been set as the retirement age from the FIFA referees’ panel.
“It is indeed true that this is the final year of Bondo in the FIFA referees’ panel. He has reached the retirement age of FIFA,” Botswana Football Association (BFA) referee’s manager Jonty Rasetsoga says.
As he reaches his retirement age, the BFA can only request that he be given another year. Even then, only the FIFA will determine if he can continue to officiate at international level.
“We can still make a request for an extension by at least a year. This request is subject to his performance in the special tests specifically for those above 45 years,” Rasetsoga explains.
With Bondo having been the country’s only recognised face on the international stage, his departure may leave a huge void. This has raised questions whether there is any referee in Botswana to take the baton.
As it stands, only two referees, Tirelo Mositwane and Derick Marks look the closest to take from Bondo. Unfortunately for Mositwane age might be a limit as he will be 36 years old this year. As for Marks, he has for the past two consecutive years been rejected by the FIFA panel.
“Marks is one of the referees we developed with the hope that we will enrol in the FIFA panel. We have thus far submitted his name twice in two seasons but was declined,” Rasetsoga says.
And he is not the only one. Rasetsoga says ‘a number of local referees and assistant referees have been submitted to FIFA but were also rejected. As with Marks, the BFA referees manager says ‘the biggest worry is age.”
If none make the cut, worry is that it may take a while before Botswana has another referee on the FIFA panel. Rasetsoga is however not worried. He says they are working tirelessly to ensure that there is progression post the Bondo era.
“We are working around the clock making sure we build world class referees from young age. We have referees’ development path way in Botswana which consists of four levels at the moment which are informed by our league structure. We have school league with youth referees between ages 14 to 17 years and every year we run a course for them being grade 4. We then have grade 3 being regional leagues and the age group of referees for this grade is 18 to 25 years. Following them are first division being grade 2 then finally grade 1 referees who officiate in the premier league,” he explains.
The BFA referees’ manager reasons that they train referees from a young age to help them to gain experience while still young in order to be moved to the next panel. This is due to the fact that football is an age conscious sport, even for referee’s age does matter.
With this in mind, Rasetsoga says there will not be much of a gap now as they have identified candidates who can fit Bondo’s shoes. Some of these are already in their referees panel. He says the identified referees only need to improve here and there. Once brushed, he believes they will definitely make the cut and they might be considered in the elite B and A.
“We are currently working to ensure that in the next coming four years we must have one if not two identified candidates by FIFA. This is because we only have Bondo in elite B and no referee in elite A the rest being young talent,” Rasetsoga says.
This same view is held by local football analyst and commentator Jimmy George who says local refereeing ‘is in good hands.’ He says while the country might not have another Bondo for a while, it will not be a train smash.
“Bondo is an outlier, a once a generation sort of sportsperson. His brilliance does not necessarily make others bad. I feel we need to worry more about the general quality, which is quite satisfactory. There was Senai, the late Kuedza Nchengwa then Bondo. The new crop might not get to that level but there are certainly gifted too,” he says.
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