As the debate on whether the Walter Musona volley inside the box, blocked by Dominic Jaricha was a penalty or not, the final outcome is unmistakable, in that the referee, under self imposed pressure, made a wrong call and subsequently, Chicken Inn players were guilty of forcing an abandonment to the match.
The Page, using video footage available sought technical analysis from four officials, one of which from CAF’s technical development, all of whom agreed, that the referee, Quedisani Dirwai, was WRONG in awarding a penalty.
According to Law 3 offences – handling the ball: for the purposes of determining handball offences, the upper boundary of the arm is in line with the bottom of the armpit.
Not every touch of a player’s hand/arm with the ball is an offence.
It is an offence if a player:
deliberately touches the ball with their hand/arm. Did Jaricha deliberately touched the ball?
Did the referee apply this concept rule in determining whether or not the player deliberately touched the ball?
For example, moving the hand or arm towards the ball touching the ball with their hand or arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger is a circumstantial consideration for a referee.
Did Dirwai competently applied this circumstantial consideration?
A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand or arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation.
By having their hand or arm in such a position, the player takes a risk of their hand or arm being hit by the ball and being penalised.
Did, Jaricha in that milli second moment of movement breach any of the above scenarios?
The answer was given as a no and therefore NO PENALTY.
Dirwai didn’t need to have made the penalty call. But he did. And was wrong.
Did that wrong call affect the outcome of the match?
Yes and No. Yes, that the subsequent mayhem, triggered by the referee wrong call made Chicken Inn players cause an abandonment of the match, which before a tribunal, would be awarded to Scottland.
No, that the teams tied at 0-0 and if Dirwai had not called for a non existent penalty, the complexion of the match would have stayed.
Never mind that Chicken Inn, were aggrieved for a penalty call that Dirwai waved away. It doesn’t matter.
But the spotlight on referees was exacerbated by an arrogant if ignorant Zifa leadership (we need new leadership, already) who ignored wise counsel in the composition of the referees committee.
Worse when Zifa president was fooled into giving Kenny Ndebele, the control, all against laid down FIFA tenets.
Now every match, referees are under immense pressure, more so, after the public suspension of three officials, two weeks ago.
Young Dirwai was always going to make these fatal mistakes. He is a fair referee but relatively inexperienced to be given four consecutive tough matches to handle.
It is poor management on the referees by the poor referees management team, sadly controlled by one, Ndebele.
The Rufaro incident on Friday had nothing to do with Scottland, whose matches always attract a lot of people, including those from other teams notably DeMarriot and Caps United.
The Zifa and Magwizi can continue to ignore this critical issue of referees, whose terrible impact on the game is eating into the integrity of competitions.
Every week, there are complaints of poor officiating.
Southern Region is battling with cases, Central region is deep into chaos over referees….and you have a poor Zifa suggesting that clubs forward complaints directly to the useless secretariat fronted by Yvonne Manwa.
What nonsense is that?
And then we think we have a serious leadership? So divorced from reality that one wonders if these guys are fake or unreal or both. Netflix? Maybe.
Football has a way of exposing fakes. It humbles you. Now young Dirwai will have to be sin binned and do you think when he returns after four or six games, he will have recovered from the trauma?
Letting these issues continue, letting Ndebele and his referees committee continue, while every game is a potential crime scene, is being grossly irresponsible.
At Maglas stadium the other week calamitous mayhem was witnessed, and again the trigger was refereeing, yet Magwizi jumped to institute an investigation.
It is clear the issue of chaos in refereeing is leadership. They’re blind to reality. They elect to be arrogant to the issue.
They elect to be bullies to issues that require simply smart solutioning.
Until Magwizi act, which he must before someone dies, the MWOS v Scottland game is already a very high risk exercise, akin to IsraHell and Palestine hostility.
Who would handle that match? Brighton Chimene? That Scottland game he handled has already cost him a place at the Afcon 2025 in December.
Can we afford to further kill the only one we have? Maybe we will do a Ndumiso Gumede show and hire officials from Zambia for this game.
It is a reality, that we can’t skate around. Both MWOS and Scottland bring in more to the table than the other 16 teams combined.
We can’t ignore that. These two franchises have divided opinions like no other and Zifa can ignore this reality at their own risk.
Love them or hate them these two newbies to the PSL have it to themselves to box and bid in equal measure.
When a wise man notices a toilet in a dream, he doesn’t use it.
@ChizuzuHope X(formerly Twitter) WHATSAPP +263715001628