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Dingilizwe Ntuli Sports Editor
HIGHLANDERS and Bulawayo City disappointed their legion of fans by failing to deliver the expected entertainment in their clash of the Castle Lager Premiership game at Barbourfields Stadium yesterday. The game ended in a 1-1 stalemate, but Bulawayo City can justifiably declare to have been victims of incompetent officiating in yesterday’s match after far side assistant referee Nyarai Chirwa and whistleman Thomas Massa wrongly called Mkhokheli Dube’s headed goal for offside in the sixth minute to deny City a lead that could probably have changed the complexion of the game.
Even some Highlanders’ fans in the VIP enclosure were embarrassed by Chirwa’s decision and openly pointed out that City had been robbed.
This was the second consecutive week that Highlanders had benefited from bad officiating after surviving a genuine penalty appeal against Tsholotsho FC at the same venue last week to scrap a 2-1 win. This then raises the question; what’s the point of watching football if you can’t trust match officials to call a fair game. How can the league make officiating better and snap out recurring refereeing nightmares because fans and players alike should be able to have a reasonable expectation that the rules are being enforced fairly and correctly. Unfortunately that didn’t happen yesterday and they are beginning to notice it and asking where the accountability is.
Players are evaluated in the media after every match, and maybe it’s also time to start evaluating match officials in the same manner to ensure their actions do not spoil the game. Referees are ruining football and changing the outcome of games with their strange calls and they must be held accountable for their performance. We can’t have a situation whereby certain teams benefit or suffer from their poor officiating.
Maybe those that assess and appoint referees must tell us what kind of training our match officials get. Do they study the game and game trends because there are lots of things that make us question whether or not they understand football rules? It’s high time referees convened regularly to discuss rules and interpretations as well as to undergo evaluations and training instead of waiting for the off-season when the damage would have already been done.
Besides the terrible call that cost City possible maximum points, the game itself was a drab, with Highlanders contributing immensely to the yawn. Highlanders were wholly uninspired and it’s games like yesterday’s encounter that make for a forgettable week for Bosso and exerts pressure on head coach Erol Akbay and his backroom staff to restore the team to its dominant ways of old.
Highlanders really need stability and direction after floating around aimlessly for most of the 2015 season. The players looked bereft of ideas against City yesterday and offered very little in terms of excitement. No wonder City were disappointed they couldn’t register an upset although they can be encouraged by the way they subdued their more illustrious neighbours. Whatever is eating away at the Bosso players, Akbay must find out what has gone wrong and find a way to fix it quickly before the club’s restless fans resort to staying away from the stadium.
derick.khumalo