Namibian officials to handle World Cup qualifiers

Several Namibian football match officials have been selected to officiate at International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) World Cup preliminary qualifier matches. The foursome of referee Jackson Pavaza and his two assistants Isaskar Boois and Christof Alfred Vries, as well as Leston Nangombe, who will be the fourth official at the match, are due to handle a game involving Nigeria and Swaziland. They will officiate at the return leg of the Nigeria and Swaziland match for the 2018 FIFA World Cup preliminary qualifiers that will take place on November 17 in Port Harcourt, Nigeria at the Adokiye Amiesimaka Sports Complex. Former Namibia Football Association (NFA) president John Muinjo will also be on duty after he was asked to be the match commissioner in the return leg of South Africa’s match against Angola, which is set to take place at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on November 17. Muinjo is set to oversee match officials from Kenya while the referee assessor for the game in South Africa will come from Sudan. The four officials to handle the Nigeria versus Swaziland match were selected by FIFA as part of its list for 2014 and up until now they have as a group officiated at eight FIFA and Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) games. Speaking to Nampa on Tuesday, NFA referee coordinator Absalom Goseb said he was proud that the chosen officials would be representing the Namibian nation at such a level. “The NFA and more especially the referee department feels proud to have Namibians officiating 2018 World Cup qualifying matches. “This shows that we are improving on a daily basis. These four referees have been paired by FIFA to work together as part of grooming them for the future. “I once spoke to (Malawi’s) Bester Kalombo, who was a referee when Namibia played Senegal here. He was an assessor at the game that was officiated by our referees. I asked him about their progress and he told me they were not far from joining the elite group of FIFA referees,” said Goseb. He added that people “should not be shocked if they one day see one of them officiating at the World Cup.” NAMPA