Football-Camille officiates Cosafa Challenge Cup final |23 July 2013

The tournament had kicked off on July 6 and our own national team took part in the group stages but Zambia were the eventual winners on a score of 2-1. But for our local public, it was the choice of local referee Camille as the official of the final which drew most interest.

It has been a busy year for referee Camille who in January officiated at the African Cup of Nations tournament and later in the Under-20 African competition.
Camille, 37, was also assigned a difficult match in the African Champions League pitting TP Mazembe of Congo against Orlando Pirates of South Africa. He took some heavy criticisms from the South African press, but Camille shrugged it off to be once again selected to officiate at the Cosafa Cup.

He told Sports Nation after his arrival on Sunday from the three-week long tournament that he handled four matches and received rave reviews from the panel of assessors.
The highlight though was surely being handed the final and he spoke to Sports Nation about this experience.

“I was surprised to be chosen to officiate this final match but on the other hand I was happy to have been selected among all the officials present at this competition because my selection was due to my good performances,” Camille said.

As for his performance in the final, referee Camille felt he handled the match quite well as he is pleased with his overall showing and added that he was determined to show his true form.

“I think I did fine and even the other officials, including Suketu Patel who is ironically the Cosafa president, were full of praise for the way I handled the match,” claimed Camille.

As for his next assignment, he said he is awaiting to see if he will be called to officiate the semifinal matches for the club competitions and is also looking forward to the African nations Championship (Chan) competition in January as he continues his build-up to be selected for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

R. J-L.