Top Zimbabwean referees fail fitness test

SIX match officials failed a fitness test during a Fifa Member Association referees' course held in Harare last week. The course was aimed at improving the performance and quality of refereeing in Zimbabwe.

Although Zimbabwe Referees' Committee vice-president Wilfred Mukuna declined to divulge names of the referees who failed the course, sources said three were Premier League officials, with one being a Fifa international panellist, who had been selected to officiate at the forthcoming African Games in Congo Brazzaville next month.

"We had six casualties out of a total of 70 referees who took the fitness test. We also had 30 match commissioners and eight fitness instructors who attended their own course," said Mukuna. Chronicle Sport has the names of three of four officials who failed the fitness test, among them a Premier League referee, a Bulawayo-based Class One referee and a Fifa panellist. A Gweru-based referee, whose name could not be ascertained, also failed the fitness test.

"The guys who failed will now have to wait for four weeks for another chance to try again and until they pass, they can't be assigned to officiate any matches," said a referee who attended the course. The course was conducted by Fifa instructors Carlos Henriques, Felix Tangawarima and Mark Mzengo. This is not the first time a referee on the Fifa international panel has failed a fitness test as, at some point, controversial Norman Matemera and Bulawayo's Brighton Nyika only made the grade on the second attempt.