The five-day course is to gauge the readiness of the match officials for the remainder of the competition after a six-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and also fine-tune their abilities for the decisive stages of the continental club championship, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) said in a release.

“We are very happy with the return of football after many months of inactivity due to COVID-19. It is in this regard that this important course is being organized to prepare the match officials for the competitions,” CAF Refereeing Director, Eddy Maillet said, as quoted in the release.

“The remaining matches are decisive, and the match officials have to be in the best of shapes – physically, mentally and psychologically – to supervise the games,” CAF Refereeing Director, he added.

The participants will remain in a social bubble for the duration of the course and will undergo regular mandatory COVID-19 tests in accordance with the CAF Guidelines to resume Football in Africa and local authorities.

“From the course, we will appoint match officials for the upcoming matches (semi-final and final). They will travel from Cairo to the match venues whilst observing the protocols,” Maillet added.

One of the key aspects of the training course will be the emphasis on Video Assistant Referees (VAR) which will be applied for the remaining stages of the Interclub competitions. There will be practical sessions using parallel simulators during trial matches featuring local youth teams.

Other topics to be discussed are Amendments to the Laws of the Game, Handball Incidents, Match & Video Analyses, Offside Rule, Penalty Area Incidents and Tactical Fouls.