Moorosi Tsiane

TWENTY-six former match officials on Friday completed a five-day FIFA match assessor’s course facilitated by former South African referee Jerome Damon in Maseru.

Lesotho Referee’s Committee coordinator Mohau Sentšo hailed the course as a success adding that all the 26 participants were ready for their tasks in the just started premier league season. The league season started yesterday.

“This course saw 26 former referees being trained to assess referees in both the premier league and the A Division,” Sentšo told the Sunday Express on Friday.

“We are happy that the course was a success and all the participants are now ready for the commencement of the league tomorrow (yesterday).”

Sentšo said the course was designed in such a way that the trainees would act as coaches for the referees as they are supposed to highlight the mistakes made by match officials during the matches with a view to help them improve.

“They are more like coaches now. While they watch the matches, they will be jotting down notes on the mistakes that the referees make so that they can improve in their next matches.

He said they would further train the assessors in certain areas to ensure that their knowledge catches up with that of the referees who had a refresher course last month.

“We had a course for referees last month, so we thought it was wise to have one for their assessors as well so that they are at the same level. The response has been positive and the assessors have performed extremely well in their practicals,” Sentšo said.

Sentšo, who is also a former FIFA, said it was encouraging to see the number of assessors increasing compared to last season.

“The numbers are increasing and that is promising because they will be faced with a lot of work.

“We have had a two-day workshop in July this year where we prepared them for this main course and we are happy that everything went well,” Sentšo said.