Robson Sharuko: It Must Have Been Love

. . . but it’s over now
IT’S been hard to keep Dynamos out of the headlines this week – from the disbelief among their fans about their spectacular collapse in Algiers, the anger triggered by a perceived hidden hand in the manner they fell right to the inquest that has followed as a nation searches for answers amid a plethora of tough questions.
Amid all this we somehow forgot that red-hot CAPS United scored another five goals, their second five-goal haul in as many games, in a Castle Lager Premiership campaign that promises so much for a Green Machine desperate to bury half-a-dozen years of a nightmare in which the team has spiraled from champions to a flirtation with relegation.
Highlanders’ surprise defeat at the hands of Monomotapa also quickly disappeared from the radar and, even as Shooting Stars announced that Gishon Ntini had been fired, after just two games, it was clear that Gizha’s story, and all the sub-plots associated with it, belonged to the inside pages of the newspapers.
Others have chosen to say Gizha was a victim of his recklessness, that he talks too much and delivers very little, that in the countdown to the game against his former employers CAPS United he tried to turn himself into the main man, even when all the evidence showed he was just a sideshow, and he paid a huge price for his media bath.
But the Shooting Stars secretary-general, Wellington Takavarasha, who appears to be a very sober man, gave a refreshing angle to the story.
Takavarasha said Gizha’s attack on the referees who handled their tie against CAPS United, was unacceptable and, if he couldn’t take any lessons from the pounding his team had received that day, there was no reason to believe he could turn their fortunes around.
I didn’t see the CAPS United/Shooting Stars game because of church commitments that Sunday but most of the guys I have talked to have been telling me that the Green Machine were simply on another level that afternoon and some still can’t understand how, after such a dominant performance, they only managed to score five goals.
If there was any credit for Shooting Stars, said the people that I talked to, then it had to be found in the way they didn’t throw in the towel, even at 0-5, and found a way to try and give the battle a respectability and were rewarded for their industry by the two goals they scored towards the end.
Now, according to Takavarasha, Gizha was supposed to be addressing technical issues, related to how his team had failed on the day and how the situation could be improved in the future, and drawing positives, from the way his team had reacted from being 0-5 down, should have been a very good starting point.
Somehow it’s easy to believe Takavarasha and sympathise with his executive’s decision to fire Gizha, just 180 minutes into what is supposed to a 2 700-minute campaign, just two games into what is supposed to be a 30-game campaign, just one home game of what is supposed to a 15-home game campaign and after just one away defeat at FC Platinum where neutrals claim the referees were hostile to the Wild Boys.
But while Gizha might have got it right in his attack on the referees after their loss in Zvishavane, to repeat the same song against CAPS United, was suicidal and it became clear to the Wild Boys executive that the next comment from their coach, in the event they lose their next match, would be another attack on the match officials.
Referees are supposed to be professional and they have to handle matches in as fair a manner as could be possible and most of them try, as much as they can, but they are also human and they make mistakes – some of the mistakes big enough to cause diplomatic rifts between countries and some small enough they are ignored.
To believe what Gizha said after the match on Sunday is to believe that referees have targeted Shooting Stars, so that the Wild Boys sink into Division One, and questions would have to be asked about what could be the motive, assuming that could be remotely true, and what could the match officials gain in the end?
Yes, there was a penalty in Zvishavane which became a BIG talking point and you sympathise with Gizha when he says it also became the turning point but for him to also see the same shadows, when his team slumped to a 2-5 defeat at Rufaro, having at one stage trailed 0-5 , was a bit on the wild side.
Whether he deserved to be axed will always be debatable and, firing a coach just two games into the season in which his team has played the richest club in the country (in its fortress) and a red-hot CAPS United (in their fortress at Rufaro) so good they have their supporters in dreamland right now, appears to be more about panic than anything else.
What is clear is that Gizha went a bit too far in his ill-advised criticism of the referees, twice in as many matches, and the only disappointment is that neither the PSL Board of Governors and the Zifa Board have come down hard on him for that.
When Alex Ferguson made similar horrible comments about referee Martin Atkinson, following United’s questionable defeat at the hands of Chelsea in a key Premiership tie, the FA handed him a five-match touchline ban.
That is what football associations, who are in control of their affairs, do and while there is need for coaches not to gagged in terms of their appraisal of match officials, there is also need for the coaches to be given a timely reminder when they cross the line and Gizha’s comments about the match officials who handled Sunday’s match between Shooting Stars and CAPS United crossed that line.
Compare And Contrast Gizha And Lodza
Interestingly in the week that Gizha lost his job, largely because of disparaging remarks he made about match officials, and got little sympathy from a mainstream media that believed he crossed the line, there was universal approval of Lloyd Mutasa’s similar sharp comments about the Egyptian referees who handled Dynamos’ Champions League tie against Algeria.
It didn’t matter which newspaper you were reading, did it, because there was a consensus that the Glamour Boys had been robbed of their ticket into the second round by a biased Egyptian referee who played for MC Alger, on the night, and helped the Algerians to a 3-0 win, the minimum possible winning margin they needed to qualify?
Lloyd Mutasa was severe on the Egyptian referee who handled their tie in Algiers saying he robbed Dynamos of a certain result they needed, good enough to make them qualify, and plunging a dagger into the brave hearts of his men who had fought gallantly all night in hostile terrain.
Mutasa didn’t say the referee was the man-of-the-match, like what Gizha said, but it was clear that they meant the same thing and the Dynamos coach, just like the former Shooting Stars coach, believed the result could have turned out differently if the match officials had valued the spirit of Fair Play.
While Gizha has been sacrificised by his employers for his attacks on the match officials, Mutasa is getting a lot of support from his own employers with Dynamos vice-chairman Kenny Mubaiwa, who travelled with the team to Algeria, also coming out strongly in attacking the way the referees handled that match.
The local media also appears united in endorsing Mutasa’s severe attack on the Egyptian match officials because there is a feeling, in the domestic football family, that Dynamos were robbed in Algeria and any criticism of the people who handled that match has substance and those who are saying it deserve our support.
Even the fans appear united in that the Egyptian referees were devils plucked from hell and deserve all the criticism they are getting while we have seen a lot of messages, on the feedback columns, where the majority of the supporters agree that the match officials got it all wrong in Algiers and were responsible for Dynamos’ defeat.
We have seen a lot of text messages, published in the newspapers, attacking Gizha for criticising the referees, for the way they handled the match between CAPS United and Shooting Stars, and we have seen very little criticism, directed towards Mutasa, for his reaction to the referees for the way they handled the game in Algeria.
Interestingly, some fans watched the match on Sunday between Shooting Stars and CAPS United and this probably gives them the benefit of doubt to be trusted to make informed judgments on whether Gizha was right, or was wrong, to severely criticise the referees the way he did and, judging by what we have read from the contributions, most of them say he was wrong.
The majority of the fans who have backed Mutasa, for his severe criticism of the match officials, ironically, didn’t see the match in Algiers for them to make an informed judgment but have based their emotions on what they have been reading in the newspapers and what they have heard on the radio chat shows.
Makomborero Mutimukulu, who was there in Algiers, has said it again and again that it was the worst kind of officiating that he has seen in his career as a journalist, Desmond Maringwa has said it was the worst show by referees in his life-time and Zifa councilor Austin Chishanga, who was the head of delegation, described it as Mafia.
So, Mutasa’s criticism is backed, to a large extent, by quite a number of key people who either played in that match, like his influential captain, who witnessed that match like Chishanga and, crucially, a person like Mako who had a job to do and found himself having to write more about the referee than the players.
There is also history to back Mutasa and there are a number of times, too numerous to mention, where the North and West African teams have ridden on a wave of goodwill from the match officials for them to win their battles against teams from Southern Africa and Dynamos’ 2-4 loss to ASEC Mimosas in the final of the Champions League in 1998, was a case in point.
Sadly Gizha was alone and, crucially, even his employers didn’t believe that he was right in his analysis that the referees had cost Shooting Stars the game against CAPS United.
DeMbare’s Loss And Our Warnings Last Week
In last week’s edition of this column, I touched on the Dynamos game against MC Alger and, after the events on Sunday, a regular reader based in Botswana, rang me to say that he was struck by the relevance of my preview to what unfolded in Algiers.
So I revisited what I wrote last week:
DeMbare And The Silver Lining – (Saturday Herald, April 2, 2011)
It is refreshing to see that we still have men who are going on the frontline and doing a good job for their country and Dynamos’ stunning 4-1 victory over MC Alger in the first leg of the Champions League was the kind of romantic story that our football had been praying for.
THERE IS HOPE IN THIS DYNAMOS PROJECT BUT SOMETHING TELLS ME THAT THE AWAY GOAL, THAT THEY CONCEDED, MIGHT COME BACK TO HAUNT THEM TOMORROW NIGHT IN ALGIERS.
IT’S NEVER EASY PLAYING A SECOND LEG AWAY FROM HOME, ESPECIALLY GOING TO NORTH OR WEST AFRICA, AND I STILL REMEMBER WHEN I WENT TO ALGIERS WITH A VERY GOOD BLACKPOOL TEAM IN 1995, IN THE SEMI-FINALS OF THE OLD CUP OF CUP WINNERS, CARRYING A 2-1 LEAD OVER JS KABYLIE.
SHAMBO WAS THE HEAD COACH AND THE IMAGE OF HIM BEING ESCORTED OUT OF THE PLAYING FIELD, AFTER HAVING BEEN EXPELLED BY EGYPTIAN REFEEEE GAMAL GHANDOUR FOR QUESTIONING HIS ATROCIOUS DECISIONS IN FAVOUR OF THE HOME TEAM, BY TWO SOLDIERS WITH GUNS POINTED AT HIM AS IF HE WAS A CAPTURED MERCENARY, STILL SENDS SHOVERS DOWN MY SPINE.
WE FOUGHT GALLANTLY THAT DAY BUT THE OFFICIALS HELPED THE ALGERIANS’ CAUSE AND WE LOST 0-1, AND CRASHED OUT ON THE AWAY GOALS, IN A DEFEAT WHOSE PAIN CAN STILL BE FELT TODAY BY MANY OF THE NDOCHI BOYS IN ACTION THAT NIGHT.
IT’S NOT GOING TO BE EASY FOR DYNAMOS IN ALGIERS TOMORROW AND I THINK MC ALGER SHOWED ENOUGH, IN TERMS OF THEIR TECHNICAL STRENGTH, IN THE FIRST LEG TO SUGGEST THAT THEY WILL GIVE US A VERY GOOD RUN IN THEIR BACKYARD.
ANYONE WHO BELIEVES THAT THIS GAME IS OVER NEEDS TO THINK AGAIN AND MC ALGER HAVE A VERY GOOD CHANCE OF SCORING THREE GOALS, EITHER BECAUSE THEY HAVE THE TECHNICAL CAPACITY OR BECAUSE THEY WILL BE GETTING A HELPING HAND FROM OFFICIALS IN HOME CONDITIONS, AND HOW DYNAMOS WILL RESPOND IS WHAT WILL DETERMINE THEIR FATE.
WILL DEMBARE SIT BACK AND PLAY A GAME ALIEN TO MUTASA’S VALUES? WILL THEY PASS IT AROUND WITH APLOMB AND GET THE GOAL THAT WILL KILL THE ALGERIANS’ SPIRITS?
THE LAST TIME DYNAMOS WERE IN ALGERIA LAST YEAR, THEY WERE BEATEN 0-3 BY ENTENTE SETIF, WHICH MEANS THAT SUCH A SCORELINE IS POSSIBLE, BUT THAT WAS A POOR GLAMOUR BOYS’ TEAM.
THIS IS A BETTER GLAMOUR BOYS’ TEAM BUT IT HAS A BATTLE ON ITS HANDS.
Did We Praise Dynamos Too Early?
One of the big questions in the media houses this week has centred on whether we praised this Class of Glamour Boys too early, long before they had faced the real opposition, and the events in Algiers were a reality check for all of us.
We probably used a number of pre-season games, and one Champions League performance, to believe that there was substance in this Dynamos team and, on reflection, we ignored some of the shortcomings that were clearly visible all along.
The fact that Lloyd Mutasa was in his maiden voyage in charge of a team on the continent should have reminded all of us that, while he can get it right in home conditions, it would be very tricky away from home.
The fact that the majority of the Dynamos players were playing in the Champions League for the first time should have reminded all of us that, while they could get it right in home conditions, it would be very tricky away from home.
The fact that they did not have a striker to bank on, a man they could trust to bang in the goals and who was familiar with the terrain in Africa, should have been a timely reminder to all of us that, while they could score four goals at home, it certainly would be a tricky story away from home.
Even when they scored four at home against MC Alger, only one goal came from the man employed specifically in the role of hitman, Roderick Mutuma, a lanky greenhorn forward who, even though he has potential, still has a lot to learn at this level.
To invest all our trust in the hope that Mutuma could steal an away goal for us in Algeria, was probably asking for too much from the young man who – just a few months ago – was playing Division One football here.
Yes, we were cheated in Algiers but we were also to blame for our downfall because, in key moments both at home and in Algeria, we were found wanting because of the inexperience of the majority of our players at this level.
How then do we explain that, when we thought we had everything signed and sealed in the first leg when we took that 4-0 lead, there was the inexperience of Denver Mukamba to try and dribble in his own half, in those dying seconds, lose possession and then commit the foul that won them the penalty?
If Mukamba had been experienced enough he would have known that, at that moment of the game, he needed to be composed and the last thing that the Dynamos players needed was to try fancy things.
When he tracked his man back into the penalty area, he should have known the cost of a foul, but – because of his inexperience – he fell for the trap and he cost his team dearly. Interestingly, noone took an issue with Mukamba for his mistake that gave MC Alger the window of hope, even though it was clear it had changed the game, because it was generally agreed then that this was signed and sealed.
The controversial incident that resulted in MC Alger getting a second goal, through a penalty late in the game, involved a player who was also inexperienced at this level of the game – Archford “Uche” Gutu, and it can’t be a coincidence that, in both penalty situations in both legs, there was an involvement of an inexperienced DeMbare player.
Devon Chafa is a promising defensive midfielder, no doubt about that, but in the cauldron of Algiers, with the referees playing for the home team, he was always going to be tested to the limit and his inexperience would be exposed.
Yes, the referees played a big part but, if we are honest to ourselves, we also came short on our own and, if we were good enough to hold on until the 43rd minute in the first half, and hold on until the 77th minute in the second half, and hold on until injury time, then we should have been good enough to force the result we wanted.
Even losing 1-3, was that asking for too much?
If we are not bad enough to lose 1-3, even in a game where the referee is biased, then we are not good enough for the title.
That we didn’t do that is because, at crucial patches in the game, our inexperience was exposed and we paid a huge price.
Which, once again, brings me to something that I discussed in this column three weeks ago when I was still in Mumbai covering the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup.
This is part of what I wrote:
DeMbare, Champions League, Boardroom Wrangles – (Saturday Herald, March 19, 2011)
Viewing the social websites, especially being so far away from home, you are bombarded by the excitement among the Dynamos fans around the world about the team that Lloyd Mutasa is creating and, incredibly, some have even gone to the extent of suggesting that the Glamour Boys will this season play like Barcelona.
Lloyd was a stylish midfielder, one of the very best players that I have seen in action, and – had he emerged in another era – he could have played his football at a far bigger stage than playing the rest of his football at home.
He appears to have embraced the same stylish ways into his coaching and he never compromised them when he guided little Kiglon last year and transformed them into a team that played some eye-catching football and, crucially, which had the heart to play its best game against the big teams.
BUT DYNAMOS, BEING DEMBARE, MEANS THAT YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO TREAT WHAT IS COMING OUT OF THE CLUB WITH A LITTLE BIT OF CAUTION.
I HAVE BEEN AROUND FOR TOO LONG TO KNOW THAT BECAUSE I WAS THERE AT THE TURN OF THE MILLENNIUM WHEN MOSES CHUNGA’S KIDZNET PROJECT SUFFERED A STILLBIRTH.
THE PRESSURE IS ON MUTASA NOW TO KEEP WINNING AND, IN MY VIEW, THAT WILL BE THE CLUB’S FAULT LINE BECAUSE THERE IS A GENERAL EXPECTATION THAT ALL THE TEAMS WILL NOT ONLY BE BEATEN BUT THE TEAM WILL DO IT WITH A STYLE THAT WILL DELIGHT THE FANS.
IT’S HARD TO BANK ON DYNAMOS TO WIN THE LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP THESE DAYS BECAUSE THEY SEEM TO HAVE PERFECTED THE ART OF FINISHING SECOND AND I THINK, CONTRARY TO WHAT MOST OF THEIR FANS BELIEVE, THIS WILL BE A TOUGH SEASON FOR THE GLAMOUR BOYS.
YES, THEY HAVE SOME EXCITING TALENT BUT BIGGER TESTS WILL COME ALONG THE WAY AND IF THEY CAN DO VERY WELL, AND THAT MEANS WINNING WITHOUT CONCEDING A GOAL AGAINST THIS ALGERIAN SIDE THIS WEEK, THEN THEY WOULD HAVE STARTED ON THE RIGHT TRACK.
Waiona!!
Poor, Poor African Football
Dynamos and their fans might be mourning right now about how they were cheated in Algeria but, as this Four-Four-Two columnist captures below, it’s all part of the game in rotten African football.
Four-Four-Two is the leading football magazine in the world.
By Jonathan Fadugba
The Hand of God – one of the most iconic and controversial moments in the history of football.
So resonant was the moment, you can utter those four words almost anywhere in the world and people will instinctively know what you’re talking about.
Fortunately the practice of naming dubious handballs after the body parts of the Almighty hasn’t quite taken off in Africa as of yet.
The clips taken from the first and second legs of this season’s (2010) Champions League semi-final, between Tunisian giants Espérance and Al-Ahly of Egypt, make interesting viewing.
The second clip shows Nigeria’s Michael Eneramo quite literally handing Espérance their place in this season’s Caf Champions League final, with a goal that eliminated Al-Ahly on away goals.
In Espérance’s defence Al-Ahly also profited from a blatant handball in the first leg, so one could argue it all evened out in the end.
Nonetheless, the prevailing spirit of scandal encapsulates how the 2010 edition of Africa’s most prestigious club competition has played out.
The Caf Champions League has never been a stranger to unusual incident.
This is, after all, a tournament whose third edition was handed over by the federation to one finalist after the other refused a deciding play-off, like a parent interjecting in a fight between two children over a lollipop and handing it to the one who’ll cry the least.
But the 2010 edition has been lively by anyone’s standards.
UNPREDICTABLE RESULTS, DODGY REFEREEING DECISIONS, CROWD TROUBLE, FIGHTS AND STADIUM VIOLENCE HAVE ALL BEEN RUNNING THEMES THIS YEAR PARTICULARLY SINCE THE LAST EIGHT GROUP STAGE BEGAN IN JULY (UNLIKE THE UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE, AFRICA’S EQUIVALENT INVOLVES KNOCKOUTS UNTIL THE LAST EIGHT BEFORE SPLITTING INTO TWO GROUPS OF FOUR. THE TOP TWO THEN ADVANCE TO THE SEMI-FINALS WHEREUPON KNOCKOUTS RESUME).
Caf this week dished out a number of sanctions to leading African clubs after a Disciplinary Committee ruled on a string of misdemeanours that have blighted this season’s tournament.
Three of the four semi-finalists had their knuckles rapped.
Espérance were fined a total of US$65 000 after television images were beamed all around the continent showing their fans beating up stewards during their semi-final clash against Al-Ahly in Cairo.
Nicknamed the ‘Blood and Gold’, Espérance were also fined for their fans lighting flares and clashing with Egyptian police, and for the “aggressive behaviour” of their players in their 5-0 final first leg defeat to TP Mazembe.
Algerian champions JS Kabylie were fined US$20 000 and ordered to play their next game behind closed doors for the volley of projectiles that rained down during their semi-final defeat to TP Mazembe, a parade of flares that caused the game to be temporarily halted.
The Congolese champions were also warned by Caf for “lack of proper security and organisational lapses during matches held in Lubumbashi,” while a number of other violent clashes and ugly incidents also went unpunished.
In a group match between Al-Ahly and JS Kabylie, the Cairo side’s team bus was stoned, the players had to wait in their dressing room for hours after the game for JS Kabylie’s fans to leave the stadium, and perceived dubious refereeing decisions prompted Al-Ahly’s Ahmed Hassan to claim he would “never visit Algeria again under any circumstances.”
Ahead of the Espérance vs Al-Ahly second leg (that of Eneramo’s handball infamy), Espérance president Hamdi Meddeb welcomed the Egyptian delegation at the airport to try and diffuse tensions.
“Whether we win or lose, I will throw a dinner,” stated Meddeb. “We must exonerate ourselves from the harm caused to Cairo by some of our supporters.”
Sadly, Meddeb’s hospitable gestures fell on deaf ears.
Eneramo’s punched goal stirred up all the old Maghreb-Egyptian tensions, causing Espérance coach Hossam al-Badri to lambast the referee and cry fix.
“The match was over before the kickoff. I feel sorry because we play football in Africa where referees do whatever they want,” al-Badri complained.
He was infinitely quieter on the subject of his own side’s handled goal in the first leg – FourFourTwo
The Difference Between North and Southern Africa
A lot of the feedback this week appeared to suggest that because South African referee Jerome Damon handled the Dynamos/MC Alger match at Rufaro, and awarded the Glamour Boys a controversial penalty, there was no need for DeMbare to cry foul when an Egyptian referee handled their match in Algiers and awarded the Algerians a controversial penalty.
Nothing can be further from the truth.
Jerome Damon was at the 2010 Fifa World Cup, the only South African referee to be there, and was also shortlisted for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. He has handled every Nations Cup finals since 2004.
The Cape Town school teacher is 39, which means he will be 43 when the next World Cup is held in Brazil, and still eligible to be part of the cast of referees to handle that showcase.
He has a future, which he needs to protect, and when he handles matches in Harare, he knows the clips will soon find their way into the studios of SuperSport and his officiating will be analysed as much at home as it was done in this country.
So Jerome is unlikely to play any dirty tricks on the away team in Harare and, after all, we don’t have a history of pushing brown envelopes, filled with cash, under the doors of the hotel rooms of the referees.
When Jerome gave that penalty to Dynamos, he was convinced it was a spot-kick. That is why, when the Algerians were fouled inside the box in the dying moments, he also gave them a penalty.
That is where the difference lies.
A similar foul, on a Dynamos player in Algiers, would not have been rewarded with a penalty by an Egyptian referee.
It’s only in Southern Africa, where the virtues of Fair Play still exist, where a South African referee can give a penalty to a visiting team at Rufaro, knowing fully well that the goal changes the contest, while such a thing will never happen in North or West Africa.
The Egyptian referee knew exactly what the Algerians wanted and he knew the crucial moments to make Dynamos pay because he had a target.
Jerome didn’t have a target and so he handled the game as fairly as possible.
And, when you look at it closely, do you really think a South African referee would favour a Zimbabwean club side with the way their teams have failed to make an impression on the continent?
I doubt that.
The Jerome That Cameroon Rejected
Now how do we explain a situation where the Cameroon Football Federation reject a referee, scheduled to handle their 2012 Nations Cup campaign, and they get the blessings of Caf who are, of course, headed by a Cameroonian called Hayatou?
Jerome was supposed to be the referee in the 2012 Nations Cup tie between Cameroon and Senegal in Dakar two weeks ago but the Cameroon Football Federation wrote to Caf and rejected his appointment.
A letter, written by Sidiki Tombi, the secretary general of the Cameroon Football Federation, asked for Jerome to be removed, along with his two assistants Enoch Molefe and Zakhele Siwela.
Apparently Jerome handled Cameroon’s opening qualifying match in Group E when they won 3-1 in Mauritius in September last year and the Indomitable Lions objected to the penalty awarded by the South African referee to the Indian Ocean islanders.
Cameroon also objected to a controversial decision made by Jerome at the last Nations Cup in Angola when he awarded a goal in the quarter-final, which The Indomitable Lions lost to Egypt, when there were questions as to whether the ball had crossed the line.
Incredibly Caf gave Cameroon the benefit of doubt and Jerome and his team were removed from the panel and replaced by Tunisian referees.
“There is concern from Senegal that Cameroon’s influence in the corridors of power in African football is such that they are able to dictate which referees they want in charge of key matches,” read a statement released by the Senegalese Football Federation.
Now if referees are changed just like that, are we wrong to assume that even the appointments are meant to suit a certain agenda?
Hameno?
Playing For Moise Katumbi
TP Mazembe owner Moise Katumbi is a very controversial man but this week he won a lot of support, across Southern Africa, when he said there was a North African alliance that was trying to stop the emergence of powerful teams from this part of the continent who can dominate the Champions League.
Katumbi was unhappy with reports that the Egyptian referees who handled his side’s home leg against Simba SC of Tanzania claimed that agents representing TP Mazembe offered them US$10 000 to handle the match in a way that suited Mazembe’s interests.
Mazembe won 3-1 and the referees, who later turned out to be the same match officials who handled the tie between Dynamos and MC Alger in Algiers, did not make their report until after they had arrived in Cairo.
They claimed that they had been threatened with death that should they file their report.
After what happened in Algiers, involving the same referees, it’s easy to believe Katumbi that they were on a mission to fix the two most dangerous teams from Southern Africa.
First they had to take care of TP Mazembe in their home match and then Dynamos in their away match.
Waiona!
The Fall Of Stamford Bridge
Records are meant to be broken, so they say, and another one went up in smoke on Wednesday night.
Of course, this contest is not over yet, but we are in a position Chelsea would have loved.
Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chicharito!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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