Bondo in line for 2019 AFCON finals
Kabelo Boranabi | Thursday April 18, 2019 12:28
Bondo is amongst 27 whistle-men who will attend a training course on April 28 in Rabat, Morocco in preparation for the AFCON finals to be held in Egypt this June.
The Selebi-Phikwe born referee made his debut at the AFCON finals two years ago, making him the first centre referee to officiate at the continent’s biggest football tournament. Sprinter is one the five referees from the COSAFA region who have made the cut for the training, alongside celebrated Zambian referee, Janny Sikwaze, South Africa’s Victor Gomes, Angola’s Helder Martins Rodrigues de Carvalho and Bernado Camillo of Seychelles.
The referees will be trained on the updated laws of the game and the use of video assistant referee (VAR) that will make its debut at the AFCON finals.
“We are happy for Bondo, we congratulate him for making the cut. I think we should facilitate more of the referee courses to help our local referees to grow,” Botswana Football Association marketing and communications officer, Tumo Mpatane said yesterday.
“We should continue to do more because we have a lot of good referees in the country, but it is unfortunate that most do not get call ups for major tournaments. So it is on us to see that we give them the support to help them grow,” he added.
Bondo has been one of the emerging referees on the continent and has officiated in several CAF Champions League games and the AFCON qualifiers.
He narrowly missed out on the 2018 World Cup despite handing all the qualifying games, as Sikwaze was the only African representative at the tournament. CAF will name the final list of referees in May, after the training, which will see the officials under physical and medical check-ups.