adminRay Bande Senior Sports Reporter
MOST of the referees that we have today will pass with flying colours when taken through the theory exams, but on the field of play, their performance is atrocious, for lack of polite description.
This is former Fifa panel referee Kenny Marange’s honesty assessment of the current standards of match officiating in the country.
The former refereeing great, whose refereeing career path was unjustifiably drawn back by unproven Asiagate allegations, interestingly plays guest to this week’s The Manica Post Sports Yesteryear Star column hard on the heels of the controversy that followed the recent Highlanders and Bosso match at Rufare Stadium in Harare.
Assistant referee Bongani Gadzikwa was suspended last week following his blunder that denied Highlanders an equaliser in their Castle Lager Premier Soccer League match against Dynamos at Rufaro Stadium.
As the debate rages on, with Gadzikwa on the eye of the barrel, Marange believes the spate of biased or poor match officiating are more than what meets the eye.
Marange is convinced that current refereeing training curricula gives room for half-baked graduates to roam in our soccer fields masquerading as referees when in actual fact they are no better than spectators in the terraces.
“I think this is high time we introspect and start finding answers to questions that we have been trying to dodge. The training of referees is not what it should be.
“Currently, you have a referee who can pass with flying colours when taken through the theory exams, but on the field of play, their performance is appalling.
“We have concentrated much on the theoretical aspect of refereeing and neglected the importance of the practical side of it. You can’t just make a perfect referee out of anyone. We need a system that respect the theory part as well as equally give the practical aspect the recognition it deserves. I mean the actual match officiating test. You can tell from the elementary stages of refereeing that this one can make a good referee, the movement, the balance and alertness will say it all. One is born a referee not made one. With money involved, people are flocking to refereeing, yet they do not have the calling,” said the soft-spoken former Zifa vice-president.
Queried on whether Gadzikwa’s issue was handled the way it was supposed to, Marange said: “I do not know what latter transpired, but I hope due processes were followed. What normally happens in such circumstances is that we end up having emotions and lose sight of the fundamentals.
“Yes, he was wrong, but I hope he was also given the platform to explain his decision. Why he acted in that manner?
“The reason being that we are continually suspending referees and after the dust has settled, accept them back without them actually drawing lessons from that incident,” he said.
The Mutare-based qualified match instructor and commissioner, whose own sons, Tinashe and Kudakwashe are already actively undertaking referee, with the former a competent Class One referee, strayed into refereeing back in 1990 as a Class Three referee before upgrading to Class Two, two years later.
In 1995, he became a Class One referee and joined the coveted Fifa panel in 1998 as a centre referee.
He retired in 2009 at the cut off age of 45. The same year, Marange became a local match commissioner as well as instructor after successfully undertaking the requisite Zimbabwe Referees Committee exams.
Marange, who then undertook the Fifa instructors’ course in Swaziland the following year, also has memorable incidents in his adventurous, yet glamorous career as a referee and one assignment that quickly comes to his mind is the CAF Champions League finals pitting Sudanese giants El Hilal and ESS of Tunisia.
“Events in the build up to that match were scary. The behaviour of the players on the field of play was a challenge to handle. There was too much pressure on us. It ended 4-2 in favour of ESS,” he said.
On the domestic scene, Marange said: “The match between Dynamos and Shooting Stars was something else.
“I think it was in 2007 when Shooting Stars were facing relegation and there just had been an exodus of players from Dynamos to Shooting Stars. The likes of Musareka Jenitala, Eliot Matsika and others.
“In the match build up, there was talk of Dynamos intending to give the match on a silver platter to Shooting Stars. Muchinerirpi Muneri then made a foul gesture to the fans as he celebrated after scoring and all hell broke loose. I had to call off the match.”
History records that only three of Zimbabwean match officials — the famous Felix Tangawarima, Brighton Mudzamiri and Marange — have officiated at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Fact!
After scaling such heights in refereeing, few would bother to ponder whether Marange’s flirtation with the game of football starts and ends in refereeing.
Born on October 9, 1964 in the then Selukwe now Shurungwi, Marange spent his early childhood and youth life in Gweru urban.
“I used to play football from school. I played for the Midlands Under-18 team in 1981 at the same time I was turning out for Gweru United juniors. I was a goalkeeper.
“I then joined B and C FC here in Mutare. That is when I had moved to Mutare because I had started apprenticeship with National Railways of Zimbabwe as a fitter mechanist. We took B and C from Division Two to Division One.
“I was injured while playing against Arcadia. That is the time when Nelson Bandura came on board and grabbed the Number One jersey from me.
“I went on play for Railways and aggravated my injury while playing against Gleulam FC,” he said.
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