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COSAFA take VAR implementation forward at Women’s Championship

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VAR Stand during the 2024 TotalEnergies U20 Afcon COSAFA Qualifier Semi Final Match between Angola and South Africa at ABB Stadium in Maputo on the 03 October 2024 © Sydney Mahlangu/BackpagePix

COSAFA has been a pioneer on the African continent when it comes to the introduction of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) and will go a step further at the 2024 HOLLYWOODBETS COSAFA Women’s Championship by extending their plans this year.

The tournament is to be staged in Gqeberha, South Africa from October 22-November 2 and will contain a record 14 teams, making it the largest women’s senior competition on the African continent.

Last year COSAFA used VAR from the semifinals onwards, but this time will extend that to the final round of group games too, making it nine fixtures that will have the system in place.

And the hope is that next year it will be all games, but for now there are not enough certified referees in the region to do that, something COSAFA is working hard to change.

“What is important this year is that we have gone a step forward and increased the number of VAR games at this tournament from the semifinals to include the last group stage games as well. They will all be live with VAR online,” COSAFA Referees Manager Felix Tangawarima said. “We now have enough referees certified to cover that number of games.

“But during the entire tournament, we will be using VAR as a training aid, running it in the background for the first two rounds of the group stages. This is to build the training hours that the match officials need so they can be certified.

“They will be using the system as they would normally, but it will just not be live and not affect the games.”

Tangawarima says they are well on course to have full VAR in at least two of their tournaments in 2025, and definitely the men’s senior COSAFA Cup.

“We are anticipating that next year we will have VAR from game one of every group. When it comes to the COSAFA Cup, we already have enough certified referees for that.

“We are the only zone in CAF to have used VAR for the Under-20 qualifiers (from the semifinals onwards). You can see the development stages we have done. Even CAF has agreed that we are doing more (with VAR) than what they are doing. So, I need to appreciate the support we are getting from the COSAFA leadership.”

Currently on the go in Gqeberha is a five-day workshop for referees that Tangawarima says will focus on practical VAR sessions. “The difference with this workshop is that we are not concentrating so much on theory presentations, it is purely VAR training. We will be out on the field with players simulating VAR situations for the referees to train.

“For those who are not taking part on the field, we have them in the simulator, where they will be using clips of situations to make decisions. That is a continuous process up to the end of the tournament and it enables us to certify them with FIFA.”