National Sports

Sulom rubbishes Silver conspiracy claims

Sulom has rubbished Silver Strikers’ claims that the decision to punish them for featuring striker Green Harawa against Kamuzu Barracks (KB) is a conspiracy to frustrate them.

Super League of Malawi (Sulom) found the Bankers guilty of the offence after KB lodged a complaint over the eligibility of Harawa in that match, arguing that he was supposed to serve a two yellow cards suspension. The Bankers won the match 1-0, but points have since been awarded to KB at a 2-0 margin.

Green Harawa
Green Harawa

Following the development, Silver are back at the bottom of the table with minus two points.

The Bankers have also been slapped with a fine of K300 000 to be paid before their next fixture, which is against Azam Tigers, and Harawa has been given a three-game suspension.

But KB have also been fined K100 000 for showing up late for the match.

Sulom general secretary Williams Banda said following their investigations, it was indeed established that prior to the match Harawa had picked two yellow cards.

“According to the match reports, Harawa was shown the first yellow card against Mighty Wanderers in the 28th minute for dissent by words against the referee and he was also shown another yellow card against Mafco in the 83rd minute for reckless tackle and, he was, therefore, supposed to miss the next game, which was the one against KB,” said Banda.

Asked why the referee who handled the KB match did not detect on the registration card that Harawa was supposed to serve two yellow cards, the Sulom GS said: “That is supposed to be the responsibility of the technical panel, in particular the team manager to check if there are any bookings. The player himself is also supposed to be accountable.”

National Football Referees Committee (NFRC) general secretary Chris Kalichelo said he could not tell why the referee who officiated the game failed to detect that Harawa was supposed to be on suspension.

“But what I can say for sure is that the information was contained in both match reports against Wanderers as well as Mafco. So, there was indeed proof that the player should not have featured,” said Kalichelo.

But Silver chairperson McDonald Mafuta-Mwale described Sulom’s decision as “nonsense”.

“We are not going to accept that decision because it is not true that Harawa was shown two yellow cards. What we know is that he was indeed shown a card against Wanderers, but in the match against Mafco, it was Mabvuto Khozomba. Harawa only intervened as captain. That is why Khozomba did not feature against KB,” said Mafuta-Mwale.

However, Banda dismissed Mafuta-Mwale’s claims, saying both players were booked in both matches.

“In fact, Silver might have suspected something and that was why they did not feature Harawa in the subsequent game against Blantyre United,” said the Sulom GS.

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