BY FORTUNE MBELE HARARE City coach Taurai Mangwiro has questioned the appointment of referee Thabani Bamala for his side’s Chibuku Super Cup first round tie against Chicken Inn at Luveve Stadium on Saturday after the match official had presided over a controversial league match a week earlier.
The Sunshine Boys lost 2-0 to the GameCocks in the first round of the cup tie and Mangwiro felt events culminating to the first goal scored by Munashe Pini did not warrant a call for a foul.
A week earlier, Bamala was in the eye of a storm when relegation-fighting Bulawayo City were denied two goal-scoring opportunities at the National Sports Stadium against Caps United in a game the local authority side eventually lost 1-0.
After losing to Chicken Inn on Saturday, Mangwiro said he wondered how a referee mired in recent controversy was given another game.
He said that coaches face the brunt of being sacked at their respective clubs for contentious decisions made by match officials.
“The incident leading to their (Chicken Inn’s first) goal, remember I was still engaging the fourth official because I felt there was no foul committed. I didn’t see any of the Chicken Inn players appealing. Someone saw a foul from that restart and that is when we went on to concede. It’s the small little things, but at the end of the day, it costs us as coaches. But someone, even if I am mentioning it now, to some of you it is actually a surprise but to me these are small little things that I look at and have been affecting us. The same official last week against Bulawayo City; what happened? The game involving Bulawayo City and Caps United and today he is there in the centre, same kind of refereeing. Are we saying the way he handled the Bulawayo City game was the fairest that he deserves another appointment?” Mangwiro said.
On a parting note in post-match address, Mangwiro did not mince his words.
“I am not a Bulawayo City official, but I am in a competition where I think teams should be treated fairly. If we did not see how poor the two decisions were against Bulawayo City, then I don’t know. Today, I am talking about what some may think was a minor incident but it has gone on to affect today’s result. Tomorrow, Mangwiro will be shown the exit at Harare City. I have never been one to call for favouritism. What I want is impartially,” he said.
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He would not let the matter rest.
“Did you watch the Caps United/Bulawayo City match? Soon after, this referee was involved in this kind of a game where Bulawayo City lost three precious points, he goes on to get another appointment and are we saying he did an exceptionally good job in that game to deserve yet another appointment? If I am wrong then fair and fine. As a coach without results, tomorrow I may wake up and the job is gone. Is it the same with these match officials? Why do they get away with such (performances) because after commenting like this, the next thing Mangwiro is going to be fined? But is this what our football needs?”
Mangwiro said Chicken Inn’s first goal affected their rhythm.
“It upset our rhythm and at the end of the day, you want to look at that as the turning point of the match because up until that we were doing fairly well. On the second, Chicken Inn played exceptionally well overall and I want to congratulate them for winning and we wish them success in the next round of the competition.”
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