Bullets frustrated with CAF’ssilence on complaint
FCB Nyasa Bullets say they are frustrated with the silence from Confederation of African Football (CAF) on their complaint against officiation during their CAF Champions League first preliminary round second leg against Red Arrows of Zambia.
The People’s Team lost the match 2-0 at Heroes National Stadium in Lusaka on August 24 to bow out 3-2 on aggregate, having won the first leg 2-1 at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe.
Bullets acting chief executive officer Albert Chigoga yesterday said they have given up on the issue.
He said three weeks after lodging the complaint through Football Association of Malawi (FAM), they have not heard from CAF.
Said Chigoga: “There has been nothing significant since we filed the complaint and the response has been almost zero and it is disappointing.
“The fact that Red Arrows are playing in the next round of the competition [against TP Mazembe of Democratic Republic of Congo] means that there are limited chances of salvaging anything positive from our complaint.
“Anyway, we will wait and see. Having said that, our major worry is whether there is any recourse to such injustices for the good of the game.”
FAM competitions and communications director Gomezgani Zakazaka said in an interview yesterday that they are yet to get CAF’s response on the matter.
“We forwarded the complaint on behalf of Bullets, but there has been no feedback from CAF,” he said.
Among others, Bullets wanted the continental football governing body to review some of the officiating personnel’s “questionable decisions”, including the awarding of a penalty which led to the hosts’ first goal.
The People’s Team described the decisions made by Libyan referee Elmabrouk Muhammad as suspicious.
They expected CAF to consider cancelling the goal scored from the spot-kick.
CAF had not responded to our questionnaire at press time yesterday.
