Former Premier Soccer League top referee Lwandile Mfiki admits the standard of refereeing has dropped.
Miki has tipped three match officials he believes stand a good chance of being crowned the 2023/24 Referee of the Season.
With each passing week, questions are being raised about the deteriorating standard of refereeing in the DStv Premiership.
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Following their 1-1 draw against Moroka Swallows in the original Soweto Derby, a not-so-impressed Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro pleaded with journalists to continue to ask questions about the the poor standard of refereeing in the country.
But Mfiki believes there are quite a few current match officials who are doing well this season despite the challenges they are going through.
"To be honest, the standard of refereeing is not good. People are complaining, and the more they complain, it's the more these guys are making mistakes, and it's not by lack of trying," Mfiki reasons, in an interview with KickOff.
"I always say to them, the referees, that the improvement of TV cameras is exposing more mistakes. These guys are doing their best. Week in, week out, football is growing and we need to invest in VAR. A referee may not be too young to officiate, but experience does count.
"In life, experience will always have a role to play. But football demands speed, and the younger referee will always run quicker. So, I think we’ve neglected those basics of going for an experienced referee. Nowadays, they are looking at how fast these guys can run, rather than looking at experience," he says.
Mfiki says more effort should be invested at training and empowering match officials in the lower levels of the game instead of expecting them to perform miracles once they make the step up, when they were neglected all along.
"We need to invest more in putting the basics right at the lower level instead of looking at how fast the referee can run. The VAR is the ultimate solution because it's there to take out the errors. We need technology to assist referees.
"It's difficult to single out the favorite for the Referee of the Season award, most of them are committing the same mistakes.
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"From my experience, that award is never won by someone who has excelled anyway. I hope whoever is in charge is going to be transparent enough. But I think Skhumbuzo Gasa, Masixole Bambiso and Luxolo Badi have all done well this season.
"For me, it could be any one of those three.
"I think they've managed to bounce back from their mistakes, they've committed lesser mistakes."
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