CECIL Gwezera, the man who was the referee in the abandoned Chibuku Super Cup quarter-final match between Simba Bhora and Highlanders at Wadzanai on Sunday, has been SUSPENDED.

But, the ZIFA Referees Committee could as well just suspend all our referees because virtually all of them have been very, very poor.

On Monday, the committee suspended Zondzi Ngosana, who was one of the two assistant referees, during the ill-fated game after Bosso disputed a controversial penalty.

They argued, with good reason, that the incident happened outside the box and video footage proved them right.

Tinashe Balakasi, who should have been penalised for a high boot, fooled the referee by rolling into the box after his clash with Bosso’s Peter Muduhwa.

Investigations by Zimpapers Sports Hub yesterday established that Gwezera had been suspended, too, bringing the number of sanctioned officials this year to 20.

Of the 20 referees suspended across the country, three incidents have been from Wadzanai.

As of Sunday, 18 officials had been suspended for poor officiating since the season began.

Referees boss Norman Matemera refused to comment on whether Gwezera had been suspended.

Like Ngosana, we can reveal that he has been suspended for six weeks for his error after the ZIFA Referees Committee established that he was found wanting on two aspects of officiating.

One of them is ‘proximity to the incident and angle of viewing.’

“As a body we do not, as a policy, comment on such issues. That is how it is, no comment, sir,” said Matemera. A retired referee said the match could have been saved if the match commissioner had sought video evidence of the incident and discussed it with the two officials.

Matemera defended his committee’s actions of suspending referees without dragging them before a disciplinary committee.

“It is situational. If the video footage is sufficient we use it, at times we rely on the match commissioners’ reports. We act quietly.

“So many referees have been punished and we now have 20 that we have dealt with this year either through commissioners’ reports or video and television footage which we deem suitable,” he said.

Matemera confirmed that the referees who were in charge of the Simba Bhora/Hwange match, where a corner kick was taken with Wellington Muuya on the ground after he had been fouled, leading to a goal, have been punished.

He appealed for fans and players to respect referees.

“Our members are not insured, we would like to see increased security and we appeal to the corporate sector to consider insurance for them,” said Matemera.