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Sharuko On Saturday
THE FIFA World Cup will celebrate its century of existence in just six years’ time with its matches, for the first time in its history, being held in six countries.
That came in Paris in 1998 when Said Belgola of Morocco took charge of the final between France and Brazil.
As Zimbabwe, we have only provided one referee to the World Cup tournament.
Even then Brighton Mudzamiri went to the 2002 tournament in Japan and South Korea as an assistant referee.
The turn of the millennium was the golden period of refereeing in this country.
Felix Tangawarima handled a 2000 AFCON quarter-final showdown between Nigeria and Senegal in Lagos and was selected to handle the 2000 Olympics and 2001 FIFA Confederation Cup.
But, the damning reality we have to deal with today is that we haven’t had a Zimbabwean referee at either the AFCON or World Cup finals in the past 16 years.
Kenny Marange was the last Zimbabwean referee to handle an AFCON finals match on January 25, 2008, when Cote d’Ivoire thrashed Benin 4-1 in Ghana.
It’s an illustration of the rot, which has crept into our referees, leading to their standards to plummet to unacceptable standards, that not even one of them was included among the 125 referees who were appointed by CAF for AFCON finals duties between 2010 and 2021.
I have not included the 2023 AFCON finals because our referees were not considered for duty because we were serving a FIFA suspension.
But, it’s very clear that even without that suspension, there would have been better chances of snow falling in Hwange than any one of our referees being selected to handle any of these matches.
On Sunday, the full extent of how far our refereeing standards have gone to the dogs was on full display when a ghost penalty was awarded to Simba Bhora in their Chibuku Super Cup quarter-final showdown against Highlanders at Wadzanai.
Referee Cecil Gwezera and his assistant Zondzi Ngosana conspired to try and manufacture a penalty from the fertile bank of their imagination.
They first manufactured a foul for Tinashe Balakazi, despite clear evidence that he was the one at fault given that he raised his leg and plunged it into Bosso defender Peter Muduhwa.
While referees can make mistakes, punishing a defender for an offence committed by a forward, what isn’t a mistake is a referee and his assistant conspiring to give a penalty for an incident that clearly happened outside the penalty area.
Yes, we have had borderline incidents where people can argue whether it was on the line or just outside the line of the penalty area.
But this was a very clear case that a Honda Fit could have been placed between where the ‘foul’ happened and the penalty area.
THERE IS NOTHING NORMAL ABOUT ALL THIS
Bosso goalkeeper and captain Ariel Sibanda refused to go to his goal area for the ghost penalty to be taken and, during that stalemate, Gwezera was left with no option but to call off the match.
I have read a number of comments from my colleagues and fans who have been saying that Bosso should have continued to play the game under protest for the sake of the sport and its sponsors.
These guys have been saying that football’s rules say that clubs should play under protest and these rules must be respected even in the worst case scenarios.
They have said that England lost a World Cup quarter-final showdown against Argentina in 1986 to a goal which Maradona scored with his hand and the Three Lions did not walk out in protest.
Fair enough.
But I have to tell these guys that I disagree with them.
And, in doing so, I am not saying that I am advocating for lawlessness which many fear could become the order of the day when every club, which feels aggrieved by an error from a referee, walks off the pitch in protest.
I’m just advocating for an environment where referees are not transformed into powerful monsters who now decide how our football matches should be won.
I’m just advocating for an environment where referees don’t have to manufacture ghost penalties to ensure that one club is helped to win a match at the expense of another club.
I’m just saying that if we allow a situation where referees manufacture a ghost penalty, in the biggest knockout tournament in this country, which decides who represents us in the CAF Confederation Cup, aren’t we removing the life support system which has been keeping our ailing game alive?
Those who wrote the laws of the game, which protect the referees, did not do so having taken into consideration, even in their wildest of nightmares, that one day some referees would try to manufacture a ghost penalty.
It’s one thing for a referee to be conned by Maradona, who used his hand to score for Argentina.
And, it’s another thing for an incident, which clearly happened outside the box, to be imported into the box by the two men who are actually paid to make the right calls.
Highlanders players’ primary commitment is to ensure they win games for their club and their fans.
The club invests a little fortune every day to try and meet those objectives and when they run onto the field they expect to be given as level a playing field, by the referees, as could be possible.
When their quest to deliver such a dividend keeps getting frustrated by, of all things, ghost penalties manufactured by referees, I get a feeling that a stand should be taken against such malpractice irrespective of the consequences.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
We shouldn’t forget that there was a likelihood Kelvin Kaindu would have lost his job this week had Bosso lost that match.
Now, tell me, would it have been fair for Kaindu to be sacked for losing a game to such an outrageous ghost penalty simply because his team had chosen the path to be good boys and play under protest?
Before you tell me the damage to the game, and sponsors, which Bosso’s actions did, tell me the damage to Kaindu that would have followed had his men chosen to be good boys, played under protest, and lost the game to that dubious decision?
Tell me the collateral damage, in terms of emotions and everything else, which would have been inflicted on the Bosso fans had their team chosen to be good boys, played under protest, and lost the game to that outrageous decision?
How many times have we had teams playing under protest?
Did any of these teams get any form of justice even when it became clear, like in what we saw in the game between Simba and Bosso on Sunday, that the referees were clearly at fault, after the clubs played under protest?
This year alone, 20 referees have been suspended, in just six months, for falling short of the expectations in discharging their duties.
And, not even one of those teams, who played under protest because of these poor refereeing shows – deliberate or otherwise – was compensated.
When you have 20 referees being sanctioned, in only six months, then the game’s leaders should have raised the alarm that there is something wrong going on there and found ways of dealing with the crisis.
But, our football leaders accepted all this as normal and that is what has led us to our latest crisis where two referees decided to manufacture a ghost penalty, in such a high-profile game.
This is what leads to this conclusion among many people that all this is part of some dark arts and some of these referees could actually be getting paid to influence matches.
I always had this feeling that someone had to take a stand for the spotlight to be cast on the chaos that has become the order of the day when it comes to refereeing in this country.
Bosso decided to do it on Sunday.
And, while there will be consequences for them, and consequences for our game, it’s a pain we have to endure to ensure that something is done to tame these monsters.
These are not the kind of referees FIFA had in mind when they started the World Cup almost 100 years ago.
To God Be The Glory!
Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys still in the struggle. Come on Dynamos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MaBlanyoooooooooooooooooooooo! Text Feedback: 0772545199, WhatsApp: 0772545199, E-mail: [email protected]
You can also interact with me on the ZTV football programme, Game Plan, where I join the legendary Charles “CNN” Mabika on Wednesdays
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