Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. FELIX Tangawarima, the head of the Cosafa referees department, has urged the Premier Soccer League (PSL) to adopt Video Assistant Refereeing (VAR) in Zimbabwe, seeing it as a crucial step for improving the country’s refereeing system.
Speaking at a Press conference, Tangawarima praised the decision to introduce VAR for the upcoming Cosafa under-17 tournament, which begins today at Ngoni Stadium in Norton.
He believes VAR will resolve the disputes and chaos that have often resulted from alleged poor decisions on the field.
“The advantage of having this VAR in our Premier League is going to eliminate lots of negative reporting about the games, about the referees, about Zifa itself,” he stated.
The implementation of VAR is being celebrated as a major advancement for Zimbabwean football.
“This is one of the biggest developments which has been done by the Zimbabwe Football Association in collaboration with Cosafa to launch and to host this tournament with VAR,” Tangawarima said.
He also noted that the introduction of VAR would generate significant public interest, as fans would be eager to see how it affects games.
“This particular hosting of the Under-17 will go a long way for the players themselves, who are playing, [and] the public who will be watching to see how it is when you officiate with VAR,” he explained.
Tangawarima sees this 10-day tournament as a vital first step that the local football board should follow.
“The programme is actually emanating from this hosting of the Under-17, which means that you will find out that they can’t just host it from the Premier League from nowhere; they have to start from somewhere,” he added.
Despite the fact that many of Zimbabwe’s stadiums don’t meet Caf standards, Tangawarima confirmed that they have approached Fifa regarding VAR implementation.
“We have engaged Zimbabwe’s Fifa in line (with) implementing VAR in Zimbabwe in their Premier League,” he said.
Tangawarima concluded by stressing that introducing VAR is a complex process that will take time.
“VAR is a process, it’s not a once-off activity, so the preparation takes a bit of time,” he said.
“It takes a lot of equipment, a lot of movement, but they will, according to the president [Nqobile Magwizi], he said that they are determined to have VAR (in the new season) in Zimbabwe.”
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