Luanda - The Central Refereeing Council of the Angolan Football Federation (CCAFAF) has elected 12 referees, out of 20, for the last five rounds of the first division National Football Championship also nicknamed "Girabola 2024-25", to prevent false results.

This decision is part of the federation's strategy to improve the quality of professionals in this final stretch of the competition, in which they will benefit from a refresher course.

The chairman of the Council, Hélder Martins, who spoke to the press last Friday, on the sidelines of the press conference to mark Alves Simões' 100-day leadership of the FAF, said that the reduction is due to factors such as performance criteria.

In recent months, the CCAFAF has been rigorous in the evaluation of referees, mainly in Girabola, thus resulting in some suspensions, allegedly for poor work.

For example, the Council has suspended the referee António Pitra for having annulled irregularly a goal scored by Julinho during the match between Petro de Luanda and Kabuscorp do Palanca, in the 22nd round.

He was punished with a five-match suspension, in addition to being required to attend a specific technical reassessment program on the interpretation of "Law 11 on Offsides".

Hélder Martins explained that 12 referees are no more members of the work group, whose six were downgraded from the first to the second division also known as “Segundoda”, namely Luciano António, Cardoso Costa, Dongala Mendes, Luís Chahua, João Bastos e Manuel Catumbela.

However, considering this an excessive number, the Council has reduced the number of matches commissioners from 40 to 28.

IN/MC/MRA/jmc