Africa-Press – Tanzania. PREMIER League referees in the country have been encouraged to dream big in order to reach high levels of their professional careers and be able to officiate major football competitions in the world.
The call was made by the Tanzania Premier League Board (TPLB) Chairman Stephen Mguto during his closing remarks of the premier league referees course held in Dar es Salaam recently.
“Nobody forced you to be either a referee or assistant referee but rather your passion drove you to like this profession as such, make the most of it.
“I am happy to see that most of you are still young and this gives us hope that you will take exercise your roles with integrity and help to uplift football efficiency,” Mguto said.
He, however, pointed out that the main weakness they face as the board is that there are few referees with the required qualities to officiate at the international levels.
“You should always dream big. Do not just wish to officiate matches of Simba and Young Africans and be satisfied. You need to cross the borders to seek for green pastures and reputation.
“Take this as a challenge. If you have chosen this profession with the aim of doing your career at domestic level, then you should know that you have failed…if you want to go far, then you are at the right place,” said him.
He then observed that one thing which affects the success of Tanzania referees internationally is language barrier of which he urged the beneficiaries to create their own time to learn different languages. “If you vision to reach far, you ought to know numerous languages especially French and English.
As a board, we are looking at possibilities to support you in learning these languages mainly French,” he narrated. He therefore urged them (referees) to do their jobs professionally and make sure that challenges which surfaced last season are no longer repeated in the upcoming league campaign.
Few days ago, the board’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Almasi Kasongo noted that total dependency on referee eyes during matches is the major challenge they face saying the world has migrated to Video Assistant Referees (VAR).
“Full dependency on the eyes of referees is an outdated fashion that is why in the developed nations, they use VAR to support refs and we too should go for technology,” he said.
