Moorosi Tsiane
THIRTY-FIVE local referees who officiate in both the Premier League and the A-Division are attending a week-long refresher course which is being held by the Lesotho Football Association (LeFA).
The Lesotho Referees Committee Public Relations Officer Maponyane Letsie told the Lesotho Times this week that the course is meant bring the referees up to speed with the new amendments of the game’s which were effected at the beginning of this month.
“Although it is a refresher course, it will also teach the referees the new amendments made by FIFA which started working at the beginning of this month,” Letsie said.
He said the course will be facilitated by veteran referees Moeti Mpopo and Rethusitsoe Lebaka.
Letsie said the course consists of 70 percent practical work and 30 percent oral lessons.
“These are referees who have already been officiating so most of the topics are already known to them hence they will spend most of their time on the fields and less in the classroom. We want them to perfect their practical skills because they know most of the theory,” he said.
He said Lesotho will also soon start using the new laws once the course has been rolled out to ensure that the referees are abreast with the changes so that they are at the same level with the rest of the world.
“As soon as this course is over, we will begin using the new laws too just like other countries across the world where they are already being used. The new rules will be effected during the upcoming pre-season tournaments by the local teams.”
Letsie said this week’s course will be followed up by a basic course where they are going to recruit new referees.
“We need to increase our pool of referees, so next week we will also have another training for beginners which is a basic course. We want to make sure that one referee officiates at most one match per week so that this will give them enough time to rest, as that may also minimise mistakes caused by fatigue,” Letsie said.
Among the changes are that a goal scored from a handball or accidental handball even during the creation of the goal will no longer be allowed. A player who has been substituted player is now obliged to leave the field of player from the nearest boundary of the field. The goalkeeper is now required to keep at least one foot on the line during a penalty kick.
Defending players are also now no longer allowed on the wall.
For full list of new rules please follow: https://img.fifa.com/image/upload/khhloe2xoigyna8juxw3.pdf.
