The ManicaPost
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
“PLAYERS get tired, coaches get tired, maybe referees get tired too. My record with Michael Oliver on penalties with Chelsea, United and Tottenham is unlucky.”
Globally celebrated football coach, Jose Mourinho, who has been fined on numerous occasions for post-match comments on match officials, had this to say about his history with soccer referee, Oliver.
This was far from the first time that the match official had been on the receiving end of the Portuguese coach’s ire.
In Zimbabwe, the script is the same!
The Premier Soccer League and other stakeholders have also expressed concerns about the standard of match officiating.
The league fathers said they have since forwarded all the complaints they have received from the clubs to ZIFA.
However, the PSL have urged clubs to adhere to the league’s rules and regulations during matches and not remonstrate against the match officials.
It is common knowledge that after a game, a coaches love to go home or favourite hangout joints, put their feet up and have a cup of tea or a drink, but before they can do that they have to talk to the media.
In these post-match interviews, coaches are forced to meet people who poke and prod until one show emotion, whether it is exuberance, anger or disappointment.
Every coach tries to be honest in post-match interviews, but unfortunately when one is honest about referees, they risk a fine of thousands of dollars.
In Zimbabwe, match officiating has deteriorated to a circus where referees literally decide which team wins.
Under Order 13 of the Premier Soccer League Standing Orders and Fines, it is an offence for a player or coach to make comments in the media implying bias or questioning the integrity of match officials, thereby bringing the league or its sponsors into disrepute.
FC Platinum coach, Norman Mapeza, was fined US$1 200 for questioning the integrity of match officials.
Mapeza complained after their recent goalless draw against Dynamos at the National Sports Stadium, claiming their rivals got too many “soft free-kicks”.
Manica Diamonds coach, Johanisi Nhumwa made similar comments after his side’s 1-1 stalemate with Herentals College at Vengere, and was also fined.
“The Premier Soccer League has fined Manica Diamonds FC coach, Johanisi Nhumwa and FC Platinum coach, Norman Mapeza, for breaching PSL Rules and Regulations following statements on match officiating they made to the media after the Castle Lager Match Day 21 fixtures played over the weekend.
“The two were charged under the Order 13 of the PSL standing Orders Offences and Fines which makes it an offence where: A player or official who makes comments in the media, or social media, in which they imply bias, question the integrity or any comments which bring the League and /or its sponsors into disrepute or are abusive, offensive and /or insulting.
“The coaches have each been fined a sum of US$1 250. The PSL advises clubs to make use of the official channels in lodging complaints against match officials,” read the recent PSL statement.
Even the appointment processes have been inconsistent with the tenets of Fair Play.
The committee’s vice-chairman, Ruzive Ruzive, who deputises ZIFA executive committee member, Barbara Chikosi in the five-member committee that was appointed by ZIFA last month that also includes Wilfred Mukuna, Sabelo Sibindi and Makonese Masakadza, told Post Sport that: “There have been too many changes to the referees’ appointing authority and that could have led to the same referee with a previous bad record with a certain team being appointed to handle a match involving the same team.
“Now that we have someone who is doing the job, we hope the person will remain in that capacity for a long time to come or at least for the rest of the season. This will allow for continuity and knowledge of previous match reports.”
Match officials have been under the spotlight every match day due to their questionable handling of some of the games.
By their own admission, football refereeing authorities concede that something really has to be done about the standards of match officiating in this country.
In fact, the ZIFA Referees Committee is working on reducing the number of referees that handle PSL matches in order to attract quality and consistent officials.
Speaking during a ZTN television programme recently, Ruzive attributed some of the errors that are made by match officials to lack of game-time to handle matches.
“We have a very big panel of referees, so some of these decisions that happen are probably because of rust. They take too long before refereeing a match. Sometimes they just referee a single match in a month. That is not healthy for football. When it comes to playing football, you can never have consistent performances if you don’t play week in, week out. If you are always on the bench or don’t even play, you can’t perform, you can’t up your game,” said Ruzive.
“We need a leaner panel to handle matches, say three matches plus every month. That way we should be able to come up with positive results.
“All these outcries mostly are because of lack of game-time, so we need to trim the panel. To trim the panel, we cannot just thumb-suck, to say so and so will remain and these people are going down,” he said.
Ruzive said they will use a selection criteria to reduce the number of referees.
“When we give them games, they are actually proving or disapproving themselves, but there are obviously several criteria that we will use.
“The first one probably will be looking at age. Who is beyond 45? But if they have got quality, we might request to have them for one more season so that they can nurture the young ones.
“But if it just about age and we have got enough quality below the age of 45, we would rather use that criterion first,” he said.
Ruzive added that some of the referees were fast-tracked into the elite panel yet they were supposed to earn their stripes before their promotion.
“The second criteria is to look at how probably the referees got into the premier league. Right now we have referees who were promoted at the end of 2019 and there was the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
“No football was played. Division One matches commenced this year and all of a sudden before we even got to the half of the season, we have referees who are already officiating in the Premier League.
“How does that happen? It means things are not working in a proper manner. There is no justification for such promotion. So that is another criterion.
“We need to assess them first in Division One matches.
“We send match commissioners to look at their performances and if they impress they will be promoted to handle PSL matches,” said Ruzive.
The Referees Committee will also use fitness tests to help assess the competent referees.
The last fitness test was held in September last year when football was resuming coming from a year-and-a-half absence.
Ruzive believes they have a number of referees who are not fit, but are handling matches.
However, their fitness can only be determined by scientific fitness tests and this will also help them in dropping some of the referees that are not handling top-flight matches well due to lack of fitness.
