23 April 2019 – With the 2019 AFCON tournament fast approaching, SAFA referees, Victor Gomes and Zakhele Siwela have been invited to the tournament’s referee workshop set to take place in Rabat, Morocco. The week-long workshop, which will be spearheaded by CAF’s highly qualified refereeing instructors commences on Sunday, 28 April and concludes on 5 May.
Amongst other things, the workshop will be geared at preparing the selected officials for the continent’s biggest tournament and ensuring that they are all up to speed with the latest trends, rules and developments of the game.
The due, who are certainly no strangers to the pressure that comes with officiating high-profile international competitions, will jet off to the north African country on Saturday, 27 April.
Gomes and Siwela are the only two South Africans amongst the 29 invited officials from across the continent and will be hoping to gather as much information and knowledge as possible ahead of the African showpiece.
Gomes has become a regular in officiating tough African football matches, having officiated in some of the continent’s most hostile environments in CAF Champions League encounters over the years while Siwela impressively flew the South African flag at the recent FIFA World Cup in Russia.
The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations will take place in Egypt from 21 June to 19 July.