When league referees are made scapegoats for defeated teams

During the Yanga-Kagera Sugar Vodacom Premier League match played at the Jamhuri Stadium in Morogoro and the former ultimately coming out victors, some people who watched the match with neutral eyes and level-headed minds, readily pointed out some shortcomings in the whole game in respect of the referee and his accompanying crew.

One of these sports fans was the Taifa Stars coach, Marcio Maximo, who had taken trouble to go to the beautiful municipality sprawled below the Uluguru mountains to witness the said match in his quest to spot some football talents on the turf.

In that match which Yanga of Dar es Salaam won by a lone goal, the Brazilian coach is reported to have blamed the referee for having `spoilt` the game by openly favouring the Dar es Salaam lads while twisting spanners against the sugar makers from the north-western end of this country.

According to reports, Maximo had said that the umpire had all along pinned and thumbed down all Kagera moves, and he remained `unscathed` when the rival team physically pulled back their (Kagera`s) advancing players within Yanga`s goalmouth.

The coach, who is somehow still new to the plains of Tanzania`s football, has also provided enough fodder for discussion on the behaviour of soccer referees and how they behave or contribute towards making the game a laughing stock to neutral observers.

For decades now, the local football has never gone without umpires walking away with clean hands. It is their creation which gave birth to the word `uzalendo` during football matches, which grammatically means `favouratism`, particularly for the refereeing crew who had been officiating a home team on a home ground.

In the ensuing process or proceedings, referees have always been blamed by teams who have always turned losers on such occasions and such places - foreign grounds, to be precise.

A few days when some of the football giants were floored during the initial stages of the Premier League, claims to that effect surfaced, only to be ignored by some people and to be taken seriously by some.

Now enter Maximo!
As a matter of truth, a coach of his calibre cannot simply come out of the blue and say such claims without reckoning with the truth or its outcome.

To be frank, the coach, hitherto, cannot be branded to be pro-Kagera Sugar or anti-Yanga during the fateful match.

But, it is obvious that- again- as a man and coach of his own calibre, spoke out his ideas according to something he saw that is internationally recognized as football or soccer.

What had he to lose and gain for pointing at the shortcomings which were part and parcel of the game? He was simply scouting for football talents- that is all.

But the remarks he made on that match do not only leave much to be desired, but they provide us with ample food for thought, and they have come at an opportune time as the league is just still on the threshold.

A number of people interviewed on the match on the same day also expressed a gloomy feature for the whole remaining part of the marathon league which is hardly even quarter of its entire run.

The match in which Yanga emerged a proud lot after succumbing to a chain of defeats, created the vision among football lovers that the new crew which had come at the helm of the Dar es Salaam club to save matters for humiliation on its part, had all determination to make the team win the match and thus make it safe for it to bask safely in the hearts of its members.

Of course, that could be just a presumption following what had befallen the club some few days ago. But, the real problem - the problem of partisan referees - remains there for the foreseeable future unless a dynamic mechanism to take guard and control the `whistle men` properly lodged in place and properly kicked in motion.

All clubs participating in the Premier League, of course, would want to come out victorious and carry away the national laurels of this most popular game.

Another thing, equally important that has to be reckoned with, is that some participating clubs could end up kicking their legs and hands in friendly ways to referees during the last legs of the league to implore them in any way which could save them the punishment of relegation.

Of course, some football pundits could simply brush away such suggestions as loose talk, but those who have been taking matters seriously know not only the truth but the dangers that inhibit prosperity of football in the country.

It is the hope of all responsible parties and stakeholders to take the behaviour of referees seriously.