FKF referees clinic ends in Kitui, 93 certified

Some 93 referees drawn from Kitui County have benefited from an intensive five-day training course organised for grassroots officials by the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) in conjunction with the local county government.

The initiative which started last Friday and ended Wednesday was aimed at bridging a gap in the football management and supervision where the local arbiters benefited with basic referee training courses from the invited FKF instructors.

FKF Referees Committee Co-chairman Anthony Makau speaking at the final day of the function which was held at Kitui Teachers Training College said the federation is keen on ensuring its referees across the country get basic referee training courses.

“We want all the counties to partner with FKF to ensure all the referees across the country and who are overseeing our local leagues get the basic courses from our instructors to ensure professionalism in our football. We want a bottom-up approach so that we can take our football to the next level,” he said.

Makau who is also a FKF NEC member warned FKF referees against officiating non-sanctioned tourneys adding the federation will not be held responsible for upheavals emerging in tournaments which they have not approved.

“We want all the referees affiliated to FKF not to manage tournaments which we are not part of because when chaos arise during those tournaments we will not be responsible if anything happens to the referee who oversaw the match.”

With 11 women referees among those who benefited from the programme, Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu who officially closed the ceremony promised to ensure more women are involved in football management in the area.

“We’ll continue working closely with FKF and all other sports federations to ensure sports in the county is improved. We’ll support more trainings and I urge women to be part of this programmes,” she said.

The clinic comes a few weeks ahead of the FKF lower tier leagues kick off in the area.