Sports in general have many rules that need to be adhered to by all stakeholders at all times. In American football, players would be sanctioned for throwing the ball away or drop it in anger for what they interpret a bad call by the umpire. It’s called ball abuse.
Yours truly was surprised not only by the referee’s decision to allow four substitutes to take place but to ignore calls from those in the know for his momentous indiscretion in last weekend’s MTC Premiership clash between Tura Magic and the visiting PC Blue Boys from Swakopmund at Windhoek’s Independence Stadium.
In normal structures, the match official at the centre of the storm and his equally clueless henchmen would have been suspended with immediate effect for bringing the game of football into disrepute.
Surely, it should not be left to the mercy of sports journalists (the usual unappreciated watchdogs) alone to alert the dozing league authorities about these shenanigans that are so prevalent in domestic football let alone enquiring about the possible action and subsequent sanctions against the offenders.
It’s incumbent upon the league authorities to investigate the circumstances that led to this uncommon error of judgment whereupon they should issue a press statement upon its findings. Namibian football authorities have developed a nasty culture of protecting habitual offenders in their midst and this exercise makes a mockery of our football.
HOLLA! Action speaks louder than words! Until such time that the league starts flexing its muscles and takes drastic action against those who have make it their sole beat to break rules at the slightest provocation – our football is destined to become a daily delicacy for stray dogs.
Match officials officiating in the topflight football league constantly make themselves guilty of committing unscrupulous schoolboy errors and their permanently inconsistency in the application of basic rules could cost teams lots of money and prestige in the final analysis.
To add salt to the wound, during last weekend’s MTC Premiership match between hosts Tigers and United Stars – the man in black made a terrible inexcusable blunder by blowing for an apparent foul against Tigers shot-stopper, Fox Nambundunga.
The clearly exposed goalkeeper charged outside the penalty box to make what looked like a legitimate double tackle on an advancing striker, but was harshly adjudged to have fouled the United forward – thus earning United an undeserved direct free-kick.
Realizing his howler, the referee uncharacteristically resolved to compensate the aggrieved party by correcting his error of judgment by dangling a soft yellow card (caution) in the face of the offender.
The sanction was purely a gentle wrap on the knuckles, instead of a straight red card as prescribed by the rules and laws governing the beautiful game of football since the goalkeeper was the last line of defence – thus preventing a clear goal scoring opportunity.
Coming back to the horrendous four substitutions permitted, this embarrassment could have been easily avoided if there were preventable measures in place. For starters, where was the match commissioner at the time of this embarrasing incident?.It is the primary function of the match commissioner to oversee that match officials correctly apply the rules governing the game.
From what yours truly could gather is that the appointed match commissioner on that particular day was doubling up for both matches.
At the time of the incident, the brother had turned his attention to the next match that was to take place immediately after the first of a double header at the same venue and was nowhere to be found as he was in the tunnel inspecting the teams and other logistics.
This sort of shoddy arrangement can only be attributed to greed because one can surely not execute two assignments simultaneously, but again, the commercial nature of our game appears to be distorting our understanding of good governance. We must have preventative measures in place instead of reactionary ones. I rest my case.
By Carlos Kambaekwa