WINDHOEK – Football match officials have always enjoyed the comfort of dishing out punishment to footballers transgressing the laws governing the beautiful game, but in a rare and strange twist of affairs the law enforcers have been made to taste their own medicine.
In an unusual move, the Namibia Football Association (NFA) has given three match officials marching orders after they were found to have brought the game of football into disrepute. The trio of Dankie Shinana, Andreas Helmut and veteran match commissioner Alex Kapenaina was found guilty by a disciplinary committee for bringing the game into disrepute. The three match officials were withdrawn from all football related activities for one month after they colluded to effect four substitutes during a match, as opposed to the permissible number of only three. Shinana, a Fifa accredited match official had the small crowd at Windhoek’s Independence Stadium in stitches when he waved away heavy protests by officials of Tura Magic, who tried to alert him that their opponents on the day, PC Blue Boys had already exhausted the permissible number of three substitutions. However, the man in black would have none of that and allowed the coastal outfit to effect four substitutions. Although the offenders lost the match, this ugly episode left a bad taste in the mouths of football followers, including players and officials – prompting the league authorities to launch an investigation. The incident unfolded during the MTC Premiership match between hosts Tura Magic and PC Blue on the 22nd of last month.
Veteran NFA referees manager, Boy-Boy Ndjadhila confirmed that the grounding of the trio was effective as of Monday, February 24. He said Shinana along with the 4th fourth official on match day, Andreas Helmut and match commissioner Alex Kapenaina were solely responsible for match statistics, hence the exclusion of the two assistant referees from the sanction. “They were responsible for making sure that all procedures relating to the game are followed, while the two assistants had to assist the referee with decision making on the field of play since they are closer to the action. It was a serious transgression of basic rules and they have all admitted their error of judgement,” Ndjadila said.
By Carlos Kambaekwa