The Namibia Football Association’s (NFA) referee coordinator, Absalom Goseb, on Wednesday said his department is looking at recruiting more women as the need for referees arises.

Speaking during the accreditation of referees that received International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) badges, Goseb said more female referees are needed in Namibian football.

He said over the years, the department had a small budget for training purposes but that changed in 2021 after speaking to NFA Secretary-General, Franco Cosmos, to help solve their problem.

“Last year, we managed to have four different FIFA courses compared to the past year, where they only held one elite course. Currently, the home of refereeing is the Omusati Region and other regions have to pick up,” Goseb said.

He stated that at the moment, only 35 referees were trained from the 14 regions, but their goal now is to have more female referees who can help grow the game of football.

“If you look at the list of match officials that are receiving the FIFA accreditation today, there are only four females from a list of 11 people. That translates to two female referees from the five that are receiving badges, while on the assistant referees’ list, there are six people and only two are female,” said Goseb, adding that with the assistance of N.dollars 1 million received with the help of the secretary-general, they want to empower more women in the sport of football.

Despite the N.dollars 1 million received, Goseb said his office is yet to revise the minimal fees paid to match officials during matches.

“We are busy looking into the matter of match fees. What happened in the past has to be improved. We handed in a proposal to the secretary-general’s office but the executive committee was dissolved so nothing was discussed, but we have now set up a new meeting,” he said.

Source: Namibia Press News Agency