admin
Lovemore Dube Sports Editor
CRY babies Dynamos yesterday played their match against Chicken Inn under protest because they were not happy with the appointment of Referee of the Year candidate Hardly Ndazi. DeMbare’s ploy might have worked to their advantage to unnerve match officials Ndazi, Abraham Manda and Brighton Nyika whose performance was commendable for a game of that magnitude.
The Harare giants, who have emerged the most desperate team off the field to win the championship by trying to influence the appointment of match officials aligned to them, gave match commissioner Ndumiso Gumede their protest letter before kick-off.
It was written by club secretary-general Webster Chikengezha who is also the PSL board member responsible for finance.
In his report, Chikengezha complained over the appointment of Gumede as match assessor. He accused Gumede of having a hand in the appointment of the impressive referee from Hwange whom they previously said they were not lucky with. “We hereby register our complaint against the match officials 1) Mr H Ndazi has handled all our previous matches unfairly. We have registered our complaint but no action has been taken. 2) The match commissioner M N Gumede is the vice-president of Zifa and we feel that he has influenced the appointment of match officials,” wrote the Dynamos secretary.
Chikengezha alleged that their match against Chicken Inn drawn 2-2 was fixed.
“Our feeling is that this match has been fixed. We are therefore playing this game under protest,” read the last paragraph of the hand-written letter given to Gumede just before kick-off.
It is not the first time that a Zifa vice-president has commissioned matches. The man Gumede replaced in the referees’ committee, Kenny Marange, was one of the two Zifa vice-presidents prior to his suspension in 2011 on Asiagate allegations. He used to commission matches and Dynamos’ actions seem to smack of an agenda to discredit the veteran administrator.
Gumede said anarchy in football would not be allowed.
He said allowing teams to choose referees of their choice would lead to chaos in the sport.
“We can’t condone such behaviour by Dynamos. What if every team in the league were to say there are referees that they don’t want, honestly, who is going to officiate our football matches?” asked Gumede.
He said like other match assessors, he also gets appointments from Patrick Marumbi who is based in Mutare.
Gumede said he would forward the letter to the responsible authorities who are the Premier Soccer League.
Despite Dynamos’ protests, Ndazi gave another good display.
Chicken Inn though would feel cheated of a penalty when Thomas Magorimbo appeared to clip Mkhokheli Dube in the box near the goal-line in the first half. Dynamos were instead awarded a freekick despite Dube coming out better in the fight for possession with Tendai Ndoro lurking in a good position ready for the kill.
Yesterday’s clash saw another show of indiscipline by visiting team players with South African flop Oscar Machapa red carded at the end of the match for abusive language on the brave Ndazi.
Dynamos have often benefited from bullying referees and when they meet their match they cry foul.
Online Reporter