Local Football Association gets ready for the new season

The pathway to becoming a referee begins at amateur club level. As per South African Football Association (Safa) policy, aspiring referees must first be affiliated with a local football association.

The Randburg FC affiliate manages roughly 50 officials and has just recruited 13 more at their recent assessment day.

Clifford Graaff is head of referees for Rand Central Local Football Association (RCLFA) in Johannesburg. He is also a Safa-approved instructor and assessor, as well as a Level 5 Safa referee with 25 years of experience.

He held an assessment for RCLFA referees at Panorama.

The point of the meeting and assessment was to discuss the following:

• Discuss events and procedures for 2024
• Discuss the use of technology (three-way communications between officials)
• Register new referees
• Discuss course dates.

Graaff explained that the RCLFA is one of the top three in South Africa with regard to referees.

“We are the largest in the Johannesburg region. The number of games that we oversee from a Friday to a Sunday afternoon is 120 games.”

Calling on aspiring refs, he stated the characteristics an official needs.

“Impartiality and a hard head, because whichever way you blow, someone is going to be unhappy. A ref must be able to accept that and accept the feedback from the player and the coaches. If you show potential and if we see you are on a fast-track path, then you go for it.”

South Africa is currently being represented by one referee and one official assigned to the Var (video assistant referee) box out of 68 in the African Cup of Nations 2023.

It is disappointing as the Dust Premiership is one of the highly-rated football leagues in Africa.

Other countries such as Egypt and Morocco have more than six refs in the competition. There is a huge gap that needs to be filled by the local football associations in terms of development.

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