It’s international practice that a FIFA referee or any match official at the standard of FIFA signs an integrity declaration form before the instruments of power are handed over to them.
In Uganda, the development won’t apply to only FIFA referee but all match officials who qualify to take part in any FUFA organized tournament. These include referees, match assessors and match commissioners.
The match officials under their body have each signed an integrity declaration form for the 2018/2919 season, the exercise that has been on going is likely to end before the end of the year.
Under the declaration form, the referees must honour any appointment without objection.
The referee must also confirm that they have neither business nor private interests, nor any relationships which could affect their appointments for games.
In case a particular referee is not in position to officiate a game, they will be required to inform FUFA (with reasons) immediately why they shouldn’t be appointed to referee matches of a specific team or club.
In the declaration form, the match officials will also recognize, resist and report to FUFA immediately in the event of any suspicious situations before or during a match.
Match officials are not supposed to indulge or take part in betting and match fixing and the officials have been tasked to confirm that they will not take part in betting connected with football.This includes soliciting, facilitating, attempting to solicit or facilitate another person to do so.
From the time they sign the declaration , the match officials are not allowed to tolerate any form of manipulation (by offering or attempting to offer or by receiving, or attempting to receive or seek a bribe).
The match official shall recognize, resist and report any approach or other activity which contravenes, or which may contravene, the sport’s regulatory framework.
Match officials signing declaration forms is becoming an international practice especially on the African continent, with officials in Ghana expected to sign theirs in 2019.
However, despite welcoming the development, the officials still have some grievances especially with their remunerations.
“With all that in place still we don’t know how much we officiate for,” an official intimated to this website on grounds of anonymity.
“We want the rules and regulations that guide us in case one commits an offense then we refer to the book, but sanctions and punishments shouldn’t just be as decrees,” another also said.
In Algeria, Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria referees sign declaration forms on an annual basis.
