Keep referees’ identities under wrap, plead Touch & Go … as clubs fear underhand deals

Home Sports Keep referees’ identities under wrap, plead Touch & Go … as clubs fear underhand deals

 

With the coveted MTC Premiership title already wrapped up, the battle for survival continues this weekend as teams in the bottom half engage in a relegation dogfight to complete the 2014/2015 league assignments.

African Stars have been crowned the new MTC Premiership champions – dethroning previously undisputed Namibian champions Black Africa, who won the title an amazing four times in succession.

However, as the battle intensifies at the foot of the table between the threesome of Touch & Go (28), Julinho (29) and coastal giants Eleven Arrows (30) accusations of bribery and match fixing have reared their ugly heads again.

Touch & Go articulate Public Relations Officer (PRO) Jefta Goaob has raised serious concerns over the impartiality of match officials. He is calling on league authorities not make the identity of match officials known beforehand fearing such practice could expose referees to underhand deals.

“This is no joke, we were robbed of a clear victory in our last match against Blue Waters where we were leading 2-1 until deep into the referee’s added time, which was signalled as two minutes but to our surprise the referee added two more minutes until the opposition equalised,” charged the usually calculated football official in a recent interview with New Era Sport.

Although the team started sluggishly at the beginning of the season, the Otavi outfit picked up the pieces and registered decent results in recent outings to move away from the drop zone, albeit slightly.

“We have a very talented squad of young footballers and our ultimate target this year is to maintain our premier league status – nothing [more] and nothing less because relegation could have far-reaching repercussions for the future of these players commercially,” he said.