Mighty Wanderers FC have written Super League of Malawi (Sulom) demanding that they should be declared winners of Saturday’s TNM Super League match against Silver Strikers.
The Nomads were held to a two-all draw by the Bankers, who twice came from behind to force the draw at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe.
In a complaint letter to the general secretary of Sulom and copied to the presidents of Football Association of Malawi and Sulom and chairperson of National Football Referees Association, the Nomads argue that they were denied “a legitimate goal scored by Clement Nyondo that was incorrectly disallowed on the pretext of an offside by the assistant referee”.
Reads the letter: “We demand that the result of the match should be corrected to be Mighty Wanderers FC 3 and Silver Strikers 2; and that three points be awarded to Mighty Wanderers FC.”
The Nomads also want the officiating crew to be banned from officiating their matches.
Reads the letter: “The denial of a genuine goal was a game-changer because our team was unfairly robbed of an opportunity to extend the advantage to 2-0 as we were already leading by a goal.
“Needless to state, we are also involved in a league title chase and, therefore, every point is crucial. We therefore cannot accept to drop points due to poor and erroneous officiating decisions. “
The Nomads further state that while they are aware that allocation of officiating crew is the mandate of Sulom in conjunction with the relevant referees body, “we legitimately expect that once allocations have been done the same cannot be altered or tampered with willy-nilly and/or without cogent grounds”.
Wanderers allege that they were “reliably informed that one Clemence Kanduku was designated as one of the assistant referees. However, he was inexplicably replaced by Samuel Fudzulani ,who went on to make the erroneous decision to deny us a legitimate goal”.
The Nomads further state that unusual incidents during their matches against Silver reveal a pattern of bias against them.
“We suspect that some elements have an ulterior or hidden agenda. In the interest of fair play, we demand prompt remedial action as follows: Suspension of the entire officiating crew for the match in issue pending further investigation particularly the assistant referee [ Fudzulani]; Formal assurance that the officiating crew shall not be assigned any match involving Mighty Wanderers FC,” reads the letter, signed by the Nomads chief executive officer Panganeni Ndovi.
Sulom general secretary Williams Banda had not yet responded to our questionnaire by press time yesterday on whether they received Wanderers’ letter and the way forward.
The Nomads are currently second in the standings with 52 points from 22 games. They trail leaders and their arch-rivals FCB Nyasa Big Bullets by a point. However, Bullets have played a game more.
