Poor officiation marred 2016 season—CRFA

Poor officiation marred the Chipiku Central Region Football Association (CRFA) league in the 2016 season, according to the association’s general secretary Bernard Chiwiruwiru-Harawa.
Chiwiruwiru-Harawa said this on Saturday at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Lilongwe.

He said there were unsubstantiated allegations that some teams contributed to poor or biased officiation through bribes.
Said Chiwiruwiru -Harawa: “There were certain areas that left a lot to be desired in terms of officiation. These areas included open biased officiation that was allegedly associated with corruption by some referees. This resulted in bloody endings of some games.

“We would like to warn the teams which contributed to this through bribes, that drastic punishments, including banning the club, shall be meted out upon tangible evidence.”
Central Region Referees Committee(CRRC) general secretary Duncan Lengani blamed the teams for enticing the referees.

He said: “Teams should highly shoulder the blame because they entice referees for favours. We can work together to curb this vice. Other games are not abandoned due to poor officiation.
“Some officials lack knowledge on the rules of the game and end up accusing the referees when there is no bias at all. We need to have clinics to equip them with knowledge of the game.”
Meanwhile, the league has increased affiliation fees in all the three divisions for the 2017 season to kick off on April 30.

Premier Division registration is now K140 000 from K120 000. Division One is at K120 000 from K100 000 while Division Two, which was at K80 000, is now at K100 000.
Msundwe United general secretary Sainti Mandowa said the hike will affect the teams, as most of the teams are self-sponsored.