As part of their plan to help raise the standard of match officiating in the province, SAFA in Limpopo have announced an increase in the match fees for referees.
Limpopo is among some of the provinces with issues of complaints over match officiating, especially in the ABC Motsepe League. The ABC Motsepe League promotes two teams to the Motsepe Foundation Championship.
Some of the match officials go to an extent of being physically assaulted by clubs and fans. But there has also been an issue of the referees being underpaid, resulting in them soliciting bribes from clubs.
HOW MUCH HAS SAFA LIMPOPO INCREASED THE MATCH FEES FOR REFEREES
Clubs were required to pay R600 each to match officials in the SAFA Leagues who would in turn share the money amongst the four of them [Referee, two assistant referees and the fourth official].
The province has now taken a decision to increase the money from R600 to R1200 per team. This, they say, would go a long way in assisting to minimise the bad officiating complaints.
“So we decided to increase the travelling subsidy by almost 100 per cent per club,” SAFA Limpopo secretary Refiloe Khoza told FARPost.
“This is after we noted that our province is very vast. The distance that the referees travel to games is too much and at times the money that they are paying was not sufficient for them to cover their travelling expenses to cover their matches.
“This then opened what we would say an oppression that some of them would end up having to travel back with teams after the matches and we know what might happen during that process,” Khoza explained.
WHY THE LIMPOPO SECRETARY IS OPTIMISTIC THAT THE REFEREES WON’T FEEL INDEBTED TO CLUBS
“We found that the money that the referees were getting was too little hence one would always find a way to get back home and when clubs assist it kind of makes referees feel indebted to the clubs.”
“Remember we can’t confirm allegations of corruption and all that. But as an association, we need to be proactive and have measures in place. It was very clear to us that the money was too little,” she said.
“There were also cases where referees would use the whole money that they got just for transport. Not that we have found anyone [guilty of corruption] but you know that in a normal situation if I am from Venda and a club comes from Venda I would ask to go with them because the money is not sufficient.”
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