Retired international football referee Gladys Lengwe is pleased with the increasing number of female referees in Zambia.
During her refereeing days, Lengwe officiated at the FIFA 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, Women’s Africa Cup and Youth Olympics.
She is the first female centre referee to officiate in the FAZ Super Division.
Lengwe, who is now a match commissioner, said the number of women referees has been increasing over the years.
“I will talk about the refereeing aspect. The numbers have increased compared to the team we started. And I think it is the same with other sports,” she said.
“We are not satisfied with the numbers, even though the number has increased it is another thing to sustain these women to remain in sports,” Lengwe said.
She said local sport should be lucrative in order to increase the number of female participants.
“We need to look at sport as an industry. If we start looking at sport as an industry we are going to attract a lot of women. When women join sport they will know that it will sustain them,” Lengwe said.
“At the moment women can join sport but they will have to look at something else to sustain them.”
