admin
The Herald, November 2, 1988
THE Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) have set up a commission of inquiry to look into what they believe could have been a rigged Northern Region Division One soccer match between Super League aspirants Darryn Textiles and Suri Suri.
This follows Darryn’s astonishing 15-1 demolition of Suri Suri in their final league match at Chibuku Stadium, Chitungwiza on Sunday.
Textiles victory has thus given Darryn the Division One championship on goal average ahead of last week’s leaders Mhangura who also finished with 55 points.
Mhangura beat Support Unit 3-1 away from home in the last encounter over the weekend.
But the Darryn-Suri Suri result has not been readily accepted by Zifa who feel something is amiss.
“I just cannot believe this result. It is incredible. We are presently setting up a commission of inquiry to look into this very serious matter,” said Zifa chairman Nelson Chirwa shortly before he left for Malawi to attend a referee’s seminar.
Chirwa said the association has called for the referee’s report of the controversial game “and the referee himself will have to come to Zifa to give us an explanation of his report”.
“And if these two teams (Darryn and Suri Suri) have been found to have rigged the game, they will both be suspended or banned from further participation in the Zifa league,” said a fuming Chirwa.
At the time of going to press, the office-bearers of this committee had not been announced, but The Herald understands that Zifa are considering members independent of the executive.
Darryn Textiles chairman Elton Pfumojena reacted angrily to Chirwa’s outburst.
“It is obvious that Chirwa has already made up his mind. I would like to pose a question. What if they (Zifa) don’t find anything wrong with the result?” Pfumojena asked yesterday.
Reports reaching the newspaper and confirmed by Pfumojena revealed that Suri Suri actually led Darryn 1-0 at half-time on Sunday.
But amazingly the game turned on its head in a second, 45 minutes and there were goals galore as Darryn smacked in a breath-taking 20 goals, five of which were disallowed for various reasons, according to sources.
That is approximately one goal every two minutes. This left the final score-line reading Darryn Textiles 15, Suri Suri 1 – the biggest score-line recorded in the Northern Region Division One for years.
Before this weekend’s matches, Mhangura led Darryn at the top of the standings on the strength of a superior goal difference. Mhangura had scored six goals more than their arch-rivals.
Thus with one game to go, Darryn needed not only to win but to win emphatically. They had to score more than seven goals to stand a chance of lifting the Division One championship.
Mhangura, for their part, had to win too to keep their hopes alive. But with a better goal average over Darryn, Mhangura were outright favourites to win the championship and represent the division in the play-offs.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
Extraordinary occurrences tend to attract scrutiny. The score-line in the Darryn T and Suri Suri match was extra-ordinary because such scorelines are rare in football matches although normal in other sports like netball, basketball or rugby. That, coupled with the fact that Darryn T was in the race for a championship raised suspicion of Zifa.
The highest match goals in world football history were scored in a match between A.S. Adema and Stade Olympique L’Emyrne on October 31, 2002, in the Madagascar National Football Championship, which ended with a scoreline of 149-0 in favour of A. S. Adema. The scoreline was entered in the Guinness Book of Records.
In soccer all teams have to abide by the rules of fair play. Respect for every athlete, playing by the written rules is mandatory, and respecting the unwritten ones is a must. Fair play requires unconditional respect for opponents, fellow players, referees and fans.
Online Reporter