A new breed of referees to be unveiled in the new season of the Hollywoodbets Super League

SAFA Head of Referees Abdul Ebrahim says the national referee department has discovered a new breed of referees and assistant referees, who will be up in action for the first time when the national league kicks off next weekend.

“I can confirm that we will have a new breed of referees and assistant referees when we make our final selection on Tuesday. However, we’re unsatisfied by the high number of potential referees who failed their fitness test for this course,’’ said Ebrahim.

 Ebrahim said the match officials have been selected from across the country to ensure that there’s equal representation for all nine provinces.

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“So the match officials have all been put together from all the provinces in South Africa, of course, we don't want to have any of the provinces to be left out, it is important to have representation across the country,'' added Ebrahim.

Ebrahim believes that female referees deserve the same respect and attention as their male counterparts, which is something they are working hard to rectify as a department.

''The disappointing thing is that our female match officials are not given as much attention as their male counterparts, which is something we are currently trying to rectify.

"Hopefully in the next few months we can meet with the provinces to discuss this so that they too can start female development programs in their provinces, so we always have match officials ready for national duty,'' he added.

The national referee department aims to maintain a standard of young referees between ages of 18 - 25 years, to encourage a long lasting career.

''We have tried to keep it under the age of 25, this from 18 - 25 years. But we have discovered that there are some match officials who are over the age of 30 but come with great experience - those we consider. But ideally for the future we want to look into young referees - knowing that they will build a solid career until they retire,'' concluded Ebrahim.

The sixth edition of the Women’s national league resumes on Saturday, with 14 teams in action - starting with the match between the University of the Western Cape and Copper Belts FC at 11:30 am, at the Baroka Global Stadium in Polokwane.