Wadzanayi Stadium fiasco: Referee suspended

CECIL Gwezera, the man who was at the centre when Simba Bhora hosted Highlanders in a Chibuku Super Cup quarter-final match at Wadzanayi Stadium in Shamva on Sunday has also been suspended.

On Monday the media got hand of a letter suspending Zondzi Ngosana who was one of the two assistant referees at the match, which ended prematurely after Highlanders disputed a penalty. They argued that the incident happened outside the box and video footage showed the incident happening way off the 18-yard line despite Tinashe Balakasi fooling the referees 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 bringing the number of sanctioned officials this year to 20.

Of the 20 referees suspended across the country’s venues, three of them officiated at matches played at Wadzanayi Stadium.

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

Like Ngosana, 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, “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,” was Matemera’s response when asked about their action on the two referees whose awarding of the controversial penalty caused the abandonment of the game.

A retired referee said the match could have been saved if the match commissioner had asked for video evidence of the incident and discussed with the two officials.

“The match could have been saved with the referee correctly awarding that team a freekick outside the box and sending off the Highlanders defender for denying an obvious scoring opportunity. I am actually surprised that Gwezera did not exercise his authority by demanding that Ariel Sibanda goes to the Bosso goal for the penalty to be taken.

If he was adamant that he would not take his position, Gwezera should have issued him a first yellow card and after that a second that would have seen him leave the pitch.

He would have waited then to see Highlanders’ reaction whether they would bring another goalkeeper to replace Sibanda. Perhaps he feared that he had already erred and hence could not take further action,” said the referee who requested anonymity.

Matemera defended his committee’s actions of suspending without the disciplinary committee process.

“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,” said.
Matemera confirmed that the referees who were in charge of Simba Bhora match against Hwange where a corner kick was taken with Wellington Muuya on the ground after a foul on him and the eventual goal allowed to stand, had been punished.

The second incident at Wadzanayi involved Simba Bhora against visiting Greenfuel.

Matemera said his committee wanted good game management and promotion of Fair Play and that they will continue to act decisively without fear or favour on errant officials.

The Normalisation Committee’s referees’ body boss appealed to fans and players to respect referees. He said he was disappointed with that their members were not insured as cases of abuse were on the increase.

In the Northern Region Division One, a referee was assaulted recently and a Zhou from Matabeleland South clapped and beat up by substitutes who were on the bench.

“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.

The Castle Lager Premiership race has been marred by accusations that some clubs are corrupting match officials.