VAR For COSAFA Women’s Championships
COSAFA will be introducing the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system for the
HOLLYWOODBETS COSAFA Women’s Championship that will be played in Gauteng from October 4-15.
The system will be introduced from the semifinals onwards, the first time that VAR will be used at a COSAFA tournament.
COSAFA Referees Manager, Felix Tangawarima is running a five-day all-female course for VAR training for referees.
“COSAFA has had the will to have the VAR project at our tournaments and finally it has arrived. Within the referees in our region, we have already registered approved officials for VAR,” said Tangawarima.
The five-day course will help referees who are encountering VAR for the first time, according to Tangawarima.
“The course includes theory, and of course practical. We have tasked the project
leader from FIFA (Mike van der Roest) taking the referees through the theory part of it. We split the referees into two groups. The one group is on the field, the other is in
the booth using the VAR. Though we will only use VAR ‘live’ for the semifinals, third-
place play-off and final, we will be doing it offline as a training exercise before that
during the tournament,” explained the head of referees in the region.
“It is important we train our officials in the use of VAR, because CAF and FIFA are
looking for licensed officials and we don’t want our referees from the region to be
left out. We want them to be on the same footing as their peers across the
continent,” Tangawarima stressed.
COSAFA will be one of the first regions to implement VAR for its tournaments, after some North African countries who have it already.
