The ManicaPost
Ray Bande and Luke Mafere
FOLLOWERS of the ZIFA Eastern Region Division One title race will get to know of the outcome of the abandoned match pitting Yadah Stars FC and Prime Rangers on Sunday after deliberations by the committee set up by the regional football administration body.
The match pitting Yadah FC and Prime Rangers was abandoned in the 86th minute after the former had been awarded a penalty with four minutes of regulation time remaining, while Prime Rangers was leading by a solitary goal.
Reports indicate that the penalty did not go down well with Prime Rangers officials and players who vehemently protested against the referee’s decision until police intervened and advised the referees to abandon the match or else proceed at their own risk.
This is the second match barely a month that has been abandoned involving Yadah Stars FC and once again a boardroom decision will have to be made. ZIFA Eastern Region chairman, Davison Muchena, confirmed that they had received reports from match officials and a committee would sit down with the concerned parties to deliberate on the issue before making public their decision on Sunday.
“We have since received the reports from match officials and a hearing has to be convened anytime this week so that we do not waste time. In fact, we are supposed to have made a decision by Sunday so that if it is a replay it has to be done mid-next week,” said Muchena.
Meanwhile, Mutare-based army outfit, Buffalos Football Club has come out guns blazing against what it termed biased match officiating by the referees handling Yadah FC matches.
The Mutare soldiers also had no kind words for the fixtures committee which they accused of trying to bend the rules by shifting their match schedules on the last minute. In a wide-ranging interview, Buffalos secretary, Arnold Gatsi, said match officials should let the best team win the race for premiership promotion and not play a part in the process by dubious officiating.
“It is saddening that the Yadah FC matches are now being played in the boardroom more than on the field of play. We now have three matches involving Yadah that were either abandoned or did not end due to a variety of reasons that border on biased match officiating,” said Gatsi.
This was in reference to the matches that Yadah FC played against Mutoko where controversy reigned after alleged biased match officiating. In the second incident, Yadah Stars match against Surrey was abandoned again after reasonable allegations of biased match officiating.
“The prevailing scenario points to refereeing in favour of Yadah and it is unfair. It is clear that they will most definitely have points awarded to them as well in the boardroom for the latest match that was abandoned last weekend against Prime Rangers. Even the last minute changes on fixtures are just not professional. This is probably being made to make sure we play at the same time with Yadah. The problem is that we had not agreed on that and their call came in late at 11pm when we could not make the last minute changes. The team was not even in camp by then,” Gatsi said.
However, board member fixtures for Zifa Eastern Region, Patience Dube, said: “We did not want to have any team playing under pressure and the decision was to make life easy for all the top four teams in the race for promotion.
“It might be unfortunate that in the process some teams will feel pressured, but at the end of the day the decisions are for the good of the game.”
