MUKWIMA CHILALA writes
REFEREES in the Zambia Super League have been accused of poor officiating of this season’s matches by some coaches. Forest Rangers coach, Perry Mutapa, has accused the match officials of biasness in most of the Choma based side, Green Eagles Football Club’s home games. Speaking in Choma on Saturday after his team lost 2-1 to Eagles, Mutapa observed that Zambia cannot be expected to produce a strong national team if clubs, like Green Eagles, who are obviously aided by match officials, are the ones representing the country in continental football. He complained that his team was always disadvantaged through poor match officiating every time it played at Choma’s Independence Stadium. But Green Eagles coach, Aggrey Chiyangi, refused to discuss the alleged biased officiating of matches by some officials. He said that his team played extremely well and deserved to win the match against the Ndola based side. Chiyangi said that his team always won on merit through fair play. Green Eagles on Saturday beat Forest Ranger 2-1 to become second on Stream B of the 2019 super league, with 17 points. The Choma based side share the same points with BuildCon though the latter is leading the table on superior goal difference. Meanwhile Nkwazi coach, Chris Kaunda, has also complained about what he described as ‘biased officiating’ of the match between his side against Napsa Stars at Lusaka’s Edwin Imboela Stadium. Kaunda said it would be difficult for Zambia to produce quality referees, the likes of Jan Sikazwe, if the poor match officiating trend is allowed to continue. Nkwazi and Napsa drew 0-0 at Imboela Stadium, a game which saw the police sponsored side surrender its lead to BuildCon who earlier on beat Circuit City 1-0 to climb to the summit of stream B of the transitional league. Napsa Stars coach, Mohamed Fathy, also fumed and blamed poor match officiating for his team’s dismal performance against Green Eagles at Choma’s Independence Statdium on Wednesday. The two teams drew 1-1.
FAZ deputy general secretary, Joseph Chimpampwe, could not be reached for comment on the issue.
