Football-Match commissioner Payet leaves tomorrow for Mauritius |17 February 2006

Payet is to leave the country tomorrow for Mauritius to act as match commissioner during the 10th edition of the African Champions League preliminary round match between ASPL 2000 of Mauritius and Coin Nord de Mitsamiouli of the Comores. The match will be played on Sunday in Curepipe.

It must be noted that Coin Nord de Mitsamiouli are participating for the first time in the competition.

Payet was first appointed as a match commissioner by the Seychelles Football Federation (SFF) in 2000 and is now one of Seychelles’ most experienced commissioners alongside Wilhem Boniface.

“A commissioner is as important as a referee,” said Payet. “I got the chance to become a match commissioner when I was an SFF executive member. At that time, the Confederation of African Football (Caf) wanted national associations’ executive committee members who had extensive football experience and knew about football administration to work as match commissioners. But now things have changed. For you to be a match commissioner, you must be a referee instructor or a past international referee,” explained Payet, who added that every two years, each country must submit the names of two match commissioners to Caf.

Payet’s first overseas mission was in 2001 during the qualifiers for the 23rd African Cup of Nations. The match was between Mauritius and Liberia.

His other matches include Olympique de Moka (Mauritius) v/s Olympique Emyrne (Madagascar) in 2002 in the preliminary round match of African Champions League,
A.S.A. Club (Madagascar) v/s St Pierroise (Reunion) and A.S.A. Club (Madagascar) v/s Mitbwa Sugar (Tanzania) both in the Caf Cup in 2002, Madagascar v/s Mauritius in the African Youth Championship in 2003, Mauritius v/s Zimbabwe in the African Under-17 Championship in 2003 and ASPL 2000 (Mauritius) v/s USS Tamponnaise (Reunion) in the African Champions League in 2004.

Last year, Patel could not make the trip to Madagascar for the Caf Confederations Cup match between USCAFOOT (Madagascar) and Prison Sports (Tanzania).

Speaking to Sports Nation, Payet said that “a match commissioner is in charge of an encounter before it starts until well after it has ended. The referee is in charge of the match when he is on the field, but we (match commissioners) have to write reports on their (referees’) performance. We have guidelines to follow. We have to make sure that everything runs smoothly and that all is being done according to the rules and regulations of the game. Match commissioners also have to make sure that visiting teams are provided with decent facilities such as training ground, hotels, food and security. We are in charge of the visiting teams the moment they enter the country they are to play in. We must make sure the participating countries’ flags and those of the Fédération internationale de football association (Fifa) and Caf are also present inside the stadium.

There must be ball boys, stretchers and an ambulance. We also check the identity of the officials, check if tickets sales correspond with the money collected. I am lucky that all the matches I have taken charge have ended without problems. This is probably because Caf picks match commissioners coming from the same region and therefore there is not a big difference in the way things are done. It also cuts down on the expenses,” said Payet.

A member of the SFF executive committee since 1994 before losing his status during last year’s elections, Payet noted that “I have not found the job difficult since I have been involved in football administration since 1979. I do hope that Caf nominates me as an independent match commissioner as I have extensive knowledge in this field.”

F. M.