The association hasn’t disclosed the names of the match officials who got infected and they confirmed monitoring the trio on a daily basis
The South African Football Association (Safa) has confirmed that three of their 110 match officials have tested positive for Covid-19.
Last week, the association ran a series of tests for all the match officials that will take part in the completion of the 2019-20 season.
And the results came back earlier this week with Safa chief medical doctor and compliance officer Dr Thulani Ngwenya confirming that only three of the tests conducted came back positive for the coronavirus.
According to Ngwenya, the said referees are all asymptomatic.
“Only three referees tested positive for Covid-19 but are all asymptomatic,” Ngwenya told the Safa website.
Ngwenya revealed that the three referees are being monitored daily and have been isolated on the other wing of the hotel where the rest of the match officials are.
“We are monitoring them on a daily basis and they are quarantining on the other wing of the hotel,” he said.
Safa would hope for the speedy recovery of the trio more so after the PSL announced on Monday that the season will resume on August 8.
The country’s FA had proposed August 1 as their preferred return date but the league’s decision to start a week later would give the trio enough time to recover.
Safa will need as many referees as possible to handle the remaining matches of the season.
There are 54 PSL matches, 44 NFD and three Nedbank Cup games still to play in the next few weeks.
As PSL chairman Dr Irvin Khoza said on Monday, chances are that there will be competitive matches almost every day in order for the season to completed as soon as possible.
While Khoza didn’t disclose the date for the conclusion of the current campaign, he confirmed the season will go beyond August 31 and into the first or second week of September.
The Nedbank Cup semi-finals will kick start the suspended season on the weekend of August 8 with the rest of the league matches expected to start by no later than August 12.
The current season has been suspended since mid-March and the PSL together with Safa worked around the clock to ensure football returns in the country.
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