Referees’ committee remain defiant

Premiership with the secretary-general of the association Patrick Marumbi saying there is nothing to warrant a state of panic so far.
Of late, the match officials have come under a barrage of attacks from some players and coaches in the Premiership over the way some matches have been handled.

The Castle Lager Premiership race is now heading towards the wire, and Dynamos midfielder Murape Murape this week came out attacking the conduct of match officials for perceived biased towards FC Platinum.

The veteran player believed their club, who are heading for a photo-finish with FC Platinum, were robbed of a “deserved” victory against Hwange at the Colliery.
Murape’s sentiments came just after Shabanie Mine coach Luke Masomere had taken a swipe on the match officials who handled the Chinda Boys’ league game against FC Platinum at Mandava. In the wake of the allegations against the match officials, Zifa moved in on Friday to appoint their vice-president Ndumiso Gumede as head of the referees’ committee, taking over from Samukeliso Silangani, who was the acting boss.

Silangani had been thrust into the seat after incumbent Kenny Marange was suspended by his fellow board members to facilitate a smooth inquiry into the Asiagate probe.
Yesterday, Marumbi came to the defence of his membership and said they still have confidence in their referees.
“We still have confidence in our referees and people should know we are just getting a new chairman for the committee.

“I do not know how he would like to deal with the issues but so far we have received nothing untoward over the recent matches that have been topical.
“We have been basing our assessments on the reports compiled by the match commissioners.

“There is a match commissioner for each Premiership match and these guys are there to provide an independent assessment of the officiating.
“So far I could say we have received no reports to warrant any investigations into the conduct of any particular referees,” said Marumbi.

ZRC, Marumbi said, feels highly unsettled with the continued attacks on their members by the other stakeholders.
“However, we are disturbed when we see such allegations coming against our members.

“We will continuously assess the reports from the match commissioners. But as I said, we have a new chairman and we have not discussed much,” said Marumbi.
Marumbi, also said some clubs have also compromised the referees by failing to pay them on time.
“There are still some teams which owe match officials their fees but this does not mean that this will influence their decisions.

“Eventually the clubs will pay so the issue of late payment does not affect.
“Last year we had many clubs struggling to pay match officials but we never had such reports then,” said Marumbi.

He also said some of the allegations could be coming from people who do not understand the laws of the game and were basing their judgments on emotions.