Ebrahim replaces Musikhwa as Safa's head of referees

The South African Football Association (Safa) has made changes to their refereeing panel with the appointment of Abdul Ebrahim. 

Ebrahim has replaced Tenda Musikhwa as the association's head of referees, Safa confirmed in a statement. 

According to the statement, Musikhwa 'left the association to pursue other opportunities'.  

Ebrahim is a former Fifa referee and trained instructor and has already been working on getting the match officials ready for the possible resumption of the 2019-20 PSL season on August 1. 

"The South African Football Association (Safa) has appointed Abdul Basit Ebrahim as the new head of referees," reads part of the statement. 

"Ebrahim, who is a former Fifa referee and Fifa/Ca trained instructor, takes over from Tenda Masikhwa who has left the Association to pursue other opportunities." 

Reacting to his appointment, Ebrahim said: "First, I would like to thank everyone especially Safa for providing me with this challenging but exciting opportunity to head the referees’ department."

Ebrahim promised to do his best in ensuring that South African match officials are always at their best.  

"South Africa has been at the forefront of producing the best match officials on the continent and I would like the country to continue being pacesetters in this area. I want to assure everyone that I will do my best in this position," he continued.

Musikhwa's work hasn't gone unnoticed by Ebrahim who feels his predecessor laid a solid foundation for him to get the best out of the current crop of match officials.  

"I would like to thank and acknowledge the sterling work that has been done by Tenda Masikhwa over the years in this department. He leaves behind an ideal platform on which to work from."

Ebrahim's appointment comes at the time when both Safa and the PSL are still trying to find common ground on the return of competitive football. 

He admits the past few days have been hectic as Safa continues to work around the clock to their 110 match officials ready for the restart of the suspended campaign. 

"It has already been a busy few days as we have brought in the first group of referees and we have taken them through the health and safety regulations as well as doing physical exercises in preparation for the resumption and completion of the 2019/2020 league season," he concluded.