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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Referees Committee has declared zero tolerance to incompetence in the 2018 season and beyond by announcing a raft of changes to its administrative and technical structure.

Zimbabwean football has been blighted by poor officiating, with the 2017 season being the hardest hit, as a number of games were abandoned due to match officials’ outright incompetence. The epic encounter between Highlanders and Dynamos at Barbourfields Stadium was the highlight of abandoned games in the previous season.

Despite repeated complaints from fans and clubs, the referees’ committee furiously defended its officials’ incompetence and continued assigning the same blundering referees to handle crucial games.

The referees’ committee says starting this this season, there will be review committee consisting of senior commissioners to look into reported cases of weak performances bi-monthly.

“These reports of poor performance will be from match commissioners and even club complaints. We implore our clubs to make genuine complaints, which will help improve our refereeing standards and eventually our game,” said Gladmore Mzambi, vice-chairman of the Zimbabwe Referees’ Committee.

He said the referees will also fill in integrity forms declaring that they will not be party to any match manipulation activities.

“These forms will help the referee recognise, refuse and report any form of match manipulation. Emphasis this year going forward will also be on quality, not quantity, and this has seen us reduce the panel of top referees to 54 from 72 the previous year. The 2016 figure was 96. This will give the referees more game time, which we hope will also improve performance as well,” said Mzambi.

Meanwhile, a refresher course has been organised for Harare tomorrow ahead of the start of the 2018 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League season on March 10.

“This refresher course will be for Premier Soccer League referees as well as commissioners and we hope it will cascade down to regions and provinces,” said Mzambi.

@skhumoyo2000