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SA football’s top referee, Lwandile Mfiki, has failed yet another fitness test.
As a result of this, Mfiki could lose his Fifa badge for next year’s panel at world football’s governing body. The deadline for the submission of next year’s names is today.
It seems the match official has made a habit of failing assessments, as the same thing happened in 2013.
Last week, the Eastern Cape-born whistle man failed to complete the mandatory 12 laps.
He now faces time on the sidelines for six weeks until he is retested to pass the test.
In 2013, Mfiki had to travel to Malawi at his own expense for a retest after he failed an international fitness test.
Safa’s head of referees, Peter Sejake, confirmed that Mfiki had failed the assessment.
Sejake could not be drawn on what would happen to Mfiki’s place on the Fifa panel.
“Can I please not comment on that one, because the deadline for submission of names is on October 18 [today]. I can only comment after that,” said Sejake.
He said assistant referee Buyisile Ngqambiyana had a medical condition that had prevented him from passing the test.
Sejake stood behind Safa’s decision to administer the CAF fitness test instead of the one stipulated by Fifa.
While Fifa requires officials to run only 10 laps, CAF wants them to do 12.
Sejake said there was nothing wrong with this practice.
“Our officials do games on the continent, which include all CAF competitions, whereas Fifa only does the World Cup; so we are obliged to do the CAF test,” said Sejake.
Because match officials have to keep up with the speed of the game, they are subjected to four fitness tests a season.
The first test requires speed and the second examines the referee’s stamina in repeated high-intensity runs (see graphic).
It has been shown that referees actually work harder than players, according to the English Premier League end-of-season report for 2012/13.
The report revealed that referees averaged 176 high-speed runs per match (above 20km/h) whereas players averaged 175 during that season.
. Meanwhile, three South African officials have been invited to CAF’s elite referees’ course in Cairo next month.
The trio of Daniel Bennett, Victor Gomes and Zakhele Siwela will leave for Egypt at the end of the month.
Sejake said this augured well for the country, as CAF had shown confidence in South African officials.
“It shows we have made a mark on the continent. Last week, our guys did the CAF Champions League semifinals in Algeria and this is good for us,” said Sejake
