Two weeks after the start of MK320 million Castel Challenge Cup, the Atlas has discovered that some unqualified referees are officiating cup games at district level.
This publication can confirm that there’s no proper procedure in selecting the men in black to officiate games in the country’s most prestigious cup.
This has resulted in teams lodging complaints with responsible authorities but little or nothing is being done to avert the situation.
In one of the games we monitored over the weekend in Ntcheu involving Bilira United from Ntcheu and Khomela FCwhich the former won 2-1,the losing side was not amused at all with the level of officiation on the matchday.
Match Cordinator for the day Chipiliro Phiri has confirmed to us that indeed unqualified referees handled the game.
“We didn’t receive any ref from district football the football committee or district referees committee so we were ordered by officals from the district football committee to find anyone who can officiate the game” said Phiri
Meanwhile Chairman of the referees Committee was not available for comment but Ntcheu District Football Committee chairman Williams Kapenuka has told us they decided to start the competition without qualified referees as the referees to officiate the games due to misunderstandings in renumeration package.
“I heard that the referees wanted to get K15,000 per game against the initial K5000. But because their request was turned down they boycotted so we sat down as an association and agreed to proceed with the competition and we are using those who volunteer themselves to take the task” said Kapenuka
In a separate interview an official from the regional referees body who did not want to be named admitted to have received complains from referees about the officiating fee.
“Not only Ntcheu but also Dowa, Kasungu and other districts referees have complained that the K5000 is not enough to cutter expenses for transport and lunch and in most of the districts they are using unqualified referees. They have also complained that they don’t know where and how to get their allowances from”he said.
When contacted Football Association of Malawi (FAM) competitions Director Gomezgani Zakazaka saying he wanted to investigate since he is on holiday.
But one of soccer analysts Tsanzo Rashid is not convinced with the organizers of the tournament for failing to put enough funds for referees.
“We are talking of K320 million per season that’s a huge amount but I wonder why they are failing to pay enough allowances to referees. The use of unqualified referees will bring more confusion during matches and at the end such things may have negative impact on the image of the sponsors, I think its better they revise the K5000 amount so that games are handled by professionals” said Rashid
The competition is still played at the district and regional levels the winners will get K750,000 and K1million respectively.
Picture Source: Aluso Media
