Junior Referees Shines At Northern MASA Games

Junior football referees who have joined the team of officiating personnel a few weeks ago have been entrusted with the task of officiating matches at this year’s Malawi Schools Sports Association (MASSA) football games in the Northern region.

To the surprise of many soccer enthusiast who gathered at Mzuzu Stadium, Mzuzu Government Secondary School and Moyale Barracks football grounds the under-14 referees managed to control the games with very minimum supervision.

The junior referee’s manager who is also the Northern referees Secretary General, Piuson Kamanga expressed satisfaction with the excellent performance displayed by the junior referees.

“Honestly, even myself I have been taken by surprise with the level of confidence and the ability to control competitive games displayed by the junior whistlemen who have just been nurtured within the weeks,”Kamanga said.

Kamanga who is Grade One elite referee thanked parents, the Northern football refereeing body, MASSA North and guardians for the support rendered towards successful implementation of the junior football refereeing program which is yielding tremendous progress.

“It is very encouraging to register such remarkable performances among these thirty-two out of our thirty-five junior referees residing within the city who have been greatly supported by all the stakeholders in football development including parents and that cannot just go by without being appreciated,” he said.

One of the junior referees…… described the experience as phenomenal and thanked MASSA for providing an opportunity for them to showcase their talents adding that it won’t take time before one of them officiated games at the international schools games.

During the opening of the week-long Under-14 football refereeing training workshop held at the Luwinga Technical Development Centre Football Associations (FAM) referees manager Fredrick Kholopa expressed hope with 107 junior referees recruitment which runs concurrently with the academic life which he said makes it easy for the young ones to adapt.

“FAM through my office will take a very good care of these junior referees who have shown the potential to make it big even at that big platforms in football officiation,” Kholopa said.

Massa-North has gathered athletes in all sporting disciplines from all the districts at Mzuzu Government Secondary school to select those to represent the region at this year’s national games slated for the capital city, Lilongwe.