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Augustine Hwata Senior Sports Reporter
THE Castle Lager Premiership has reached the penultimate round with four clubs — Highlanders, Dynamos, Harare City and FC Platinum — still in the running for the championship that is surely heading for a tense photo-finish.
But behind the football theories doing the rounds, seasoned Dynamos midfielder Murape Murape is convinced there is an underworld syndicate that is working to ensure that the defending league champions do not retain the coveted trophy this season.
Known to shoot from the hip at times, Murape believes the Mafia is using match officials to influence the destiny of the league championship race by ensuring that certain clubs are favoured while Dynamos are frustrated so that they crumble along the way.
In 2011, Zifa invited match officials from South Africa to handle crucial matches at the end of the season.
Murape feels Dynamos players have been at the receiving end of some of some harsh decisions by match officials in the Premiership this season while their rivals got the benefit of doubt.
The veteran player did not play in the league match against Shabanie at Rufaro on Wednesday when his club wobbled to a 1-1 draw against the miners as he was serving a suspension.
Yesterday, Murape tore into the match officiating system that he is convinced is operating like the characters in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” where some animals are more equal than others.
“I have been in football in Zimbabwe for a very long time but there are some wrong things that I feel are happening. We are not happy with the way we are being treated by some match officials. It seems the league title race for this year was designed in such a way that Dynamos should not win and I feel it favours Highlanders.
“The league race is now at a crucial stage and we should not continue to let some controversial officiating take our game into an abyss and I call upon the responsible authorities to take action and arrest this decay.
“I feel that is one way we can move forward as a nation,” said Murape.
Murape cited the incident on Wednesday in which Highlanders scored at Barbourfields, minutes after the games between the title chasing rivals Harare City and Dynamos’s ties had ended in draws.
Hwange referee Bekezela Makeka added 16 minutes to the regulatory 90 minutes with Ozias Zibande scoring the priceless goal in the 105th minute to take Bosso to the top of the log standings.
By adding 16 minutes, Makeka literally played an unofficial first half of extra-time, which is played over 15 minutes, and that the match ended after 106 minutes means that it was just 14 minutes shy of a two-hour match that would have had extra-time.
Triangle had two players, including their ‘keeper, sent for time wasting while coach Gishon Ntini was also sent to the stands.
Murape says this is all part of a grand scheme for Bosso to be crowned champions.
“We look at the Highlanders game against Triangle, reports indicate that it was stopped in the 78th minute and it meant that there were about 12 minutes remaining.
“Are you telling me that no play was possible from the 78th minute to the 90th minute? There were some commotions as the match progressed but I do not think it warranted 16 minutes.
“The league has reached a critical stage and kick-off for teams in the championship or relegation should be at the same time in the true spirit of Fair Play. How can one game end 15 minutes after the other matches have ended?
“If Highlanders had not scored that match would still have been going on up to this day. We did not do well against Shabanie and did not win while Harare City were also held by Motor Action who have been relegated but that’s football.
“The league is a marathon and should be won on merit not sympathy,” said Murape.
Murape said Dynamos went through a dry spell from 1998 until they won the championship in 2007 but they never complained of their rivals being aided to the throne by match officials.
“There was a period we spent nearly a decade without winning the league championship but we never complained that were being sabotaged in our efforts because we were not doing enough to deserve the title,” said Murape.
“But this season, I feel that Dynamos have been at the receiving end of some harsh decisions by match officials.
“I am the team captain and I am coming out in the open to say we are not happy with the way some of our matches have been handled this season.
“We have been silent for a long time but it has now reached boiling point because we are at a delicate stage of the championship race where any decisions can either make or break our season.
“Our main concern are the referees and I do not know how or where they are appointed or who appoints them but its seems they have a sinister motive against us.
“We get yellow cards in every match and those with two yellow cards will get the third one to miss the next tie. We earn cheap yellow cards,” he said.
Murape cited the case of leftback Ocean Mushure who received a yellow on Wednesday with the referee ruling that he had dived, exactly the same offence that earned the skipper a yellow card in Triangle.
That yellow in Chiredzi resulted in Murape being suspended for the game on Wednesday while Mushure is now suspended for the game on Sunday.
“If we look in the game against Shabanie most 50-50 chances were going Shabanie’s way and we have (Ocean) Mushure, who was sitting on two yellow cards getting another card, he is a key player but now he misses the next game because referee (Nomore Musundire) judged that he had taken a dive.
“I do not think I am wrong to say we have never won a game that was handled by Musundire this season.
“There was that case with (referee Norman) Matemera where we equlised some six minutes into injury time and Highlanders players like Mthulisi Maphosa charged at him before he was restrained but there was nothing from Zifa or PSL for those actions.
“In our recent game at Barbourfields, (Patson) Jaure was given a red card, which he felt he did not deserve. He was angry at the decision taken and he reacted in the heat of the moment. We aren’t saying what Jaure did was right but why is he being hauled before a disciplinary hearing while I have heard nothing about Mthulisi also being called before a disciplinary hearing?
“Matemera didn’t handle any local games, as he was punished for about six months, for those six minutes at Rufaro, we are watching and waiting to see what will happen now that another referee has added 16 minutes.”
Jaure was scheduled to appear before the PSL disciplinary committee last night.
Online Reporter