In a landmark move for football development in East, Central, and Southern Africa, the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has launched a comprehensive Video Assistant Referee (VAR) workshop in Lusaka.
The five-day intensive training programme, which commenced on Monday, February 18, 2025, is bringing together 40 male and female referees to equip them with the skills necessary for the implementation of VAR technology.
This groundbreaking initiative, the first of its kind in the region, is being spearheaded by leading global and regional experts.
The workshop’s instructors include FIFA IT Technology Support and COSAFA VAR specialist Ramy Gamal, FIFA VAR Instructor Carlos Astroza, and COSAFA Referees Manager and VAR project manager Felix Tangawarima.
Tangawarima, speaking at the workshop, underscored COSAFA’s unwavering commitment to VAR implementation.
He announced that all COSAFA tournaments in 2025 will utilize VAR, solidifying the region’s dedication to modernizing football officiating.
“For this year 2025, all our tournaments in COSAFA will be done with VAR,” he stated. “Zambia is the first country in the Central, East and Southern zones to get the proper VAR project role out and we are going to be with the referees (in Lusaka) for the next five days where we anticipate every referee will do a minimum of 25 hours training. For a referee to be certified, they have to be trained and go through a minimum of 25 hours.”
The training programme is crucial as the Zambian Super League prepares to introduce VAR in the coming seasons.
“Zambia intends to introduce VAR in the league in the coming seasons and for them to be able to do that, we have to train as many referees as possible. We have 40 Super League referees who will be trained and certified at this groundbreaking VAR proper package. We started a pilot project for the (2023 Absa) Cup final of the Zambian game. We didn’t use Zambian referees because we didn’t have VAR certified referees,” Tangawarima explained.
FAZ President Andrew Kamanga officiated the opening ceremony, expressing profound gratitude to COSAFA for their support. “Please deliver this message to the COSAFA Executive that we are indeed very grateful that you have been able to come and support us with this initiative. There can be no successful implementation of VAR without trained personnel.
This exercise is critical in ensuring that we are ready for the undertaking that we have signed up,” Kamanga said.
He further highlighted FAZ’s broader commitment to integrating technology into Zambian football, citing the recent handover of Global Tracking System equipment for all Super League teams, both men and women.
“We are already doing a lot of work in our game to incorporate technology as witnessed by the recent handover of Global Tracking System equipment for all our Super League teams for both men and women. All these developments are embedded in our 10-year strategic plan that we are calling Vision 2030,” Kamanga added.
