Botswana Football Association (BFA), in conjunction with the National Referees Committee, is currently holding a referees physical fitness monitors course which pits young aspiring and experienced referees from different regions across the country.
The course that is conducted in two stages (theory and practical) by the BFA national referees instructor Phodiso Rasetsoga is staged at Lekidi Football Centre in Gaborone and will end today.
The main aim of the course is to train referees physically in order for them to conduct similar courses in their respective regions in their quest to have more trained personnel in the country.
Rasetsoga said these referees will be tasked with monitoring the referees physical fitness and progress in different regions upon the completion of the training course.
“The participants are drawn from different regions. Only the Gantsi region is not represented but the course is running smoothly and the participants are responding well. The main purpose of staging this course is to make sure that we have good referees, because it’s key to have a well trained representative in all regions so as to draw more interest from the public,” he said
He further stated that physical fitness is an integral part of exceptional performance in the game of football which needs to be considered.
“We will be monitoring them wherever they will be, their main assignment will be to develop the referees physical fitness and we have tools that we use to measure their progress and we expect them to give us monthly reports on the advancement of the initiative and we will be also sending experts to different regions to check on them regularly,” added Rasetsoga.
One of the participants from Tsabong region, Collen Peakok, says he intends to impart the learning and skills he acquired from the course with the fellow aspiring referees at his region since he is also a physical education teacher at Tsabong Secondary School.
“This training programme is going to bring a huge impact in the regions as far as refereeing is concerned, I am also volunteering in different sports committees in Tsabong and this course is one of the first kind and we are going to harvest a lot from it back home at the level of officiating from grassroots development to elite standards,” he said.
