Safa turns to Cosafa to accelerate delayed VAR referee training

Safa has begun working with Cosafa to speed up the training of referees for the video assistant referee (VAR) system, after acknowledging that the process could have started earlier.

The South African Football Association has not yet introduced VAR, either on a pilot basis or as a permanent feature, but is now seeking help from the regional body’s refereeing department to prepare its officials.

Safa chief executive Lydia Monyepao said Cosafa refereeing head Felix Tangawarima had agreed to assist after being approached by the association. Tangawarima is already responsible for training eight of Safa’s 90 officials in the use of VAR.

Monyepao admitted that Safa could have consulted Tangawarima sooner.

“Yes, you are right if we had consulted him earlier, maybe if we had done that in early 2024 or 2025, we would have had our 90 referees trained by now,” she said.

Safa’s request to work with the Cosafa refereeing department was discussed during a two-day induction workshop with FIFA, which began on Friday for the recently elected National Executive Committee and senior management in Sandton.

The workshop covered several issues, including seeking FIFA’s approval for Safa to engage with Tangawarima’s department and use its VAR expertise to train South African referees.

“We thought about it and said: ‘What is Cosafa doing that we can learn from and implement in our football ecosystem?’” Monyepao said.

“We engaged them and asked that they take us through this thing.”

Three-year VAR plan

Monyepao has previously outlined a three-year VAR plan with a total budget of R50 million. Under that schedule, referee training was planned for the second year, while the R20 million provided by the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) was intended for the first year and specifically earmarked for buying VAR systems.

However, Safa chose not to wait for the second phase of the plan before beginning its preparations. The association initially conducted training internally before turning to Tangawarima and his team for greater technical expertise.

“As the administration, we were tasked to see what it is that Cosafa is doing that could assist us in fast-tracking the training of our referees,” Monyepao said.

“That’s when we took the decision to send Mr Chad Soo (Safa’s IT Manager) to the CAF Women’s Champions League qualifiers in Gaborone, as well as the U-20 Men’s Championship in Mozambique.”

Soo’s assignment was intended to give him direct experience of how Cosafa operates its VAR system and to help Safa identify areas that still needed attention.

“This was done so that he could spend time there and liaise with the VAR Cosafa team under the leadership of Mr Felix, assess what it is that they are doing, identify where the gaps are in what we are doing, and take this forward,” Monyepao added.