Super League of Malawi (Sulom) and National Football Referees Association (NFRA) have called out Silver Strikers coach Peter Mponda following his outburst on the allocation of match officials.
Mponda, in a post-match interview after his side thrashed Mafco 1-6, accused the referees body of allocating matches to Blantyre-based referee Mwayi Msungama at a time they are competing against Mighty Mukuru Wanderers, who are also based in the commercial city.
The tactician said the referees’ body should have assigned the match to a referee from the North because the referee is biased towards Wanderers.
He said: “We have so many referees from the Northern Region who can officiate our matches.
“Every time when we see Mwayi [Msungama] we know that we are playing against 14 players. It’s very frustrating. Why is it that always when we have crucial games they send him to do the job?
“We know their motive is to make us fail to win the title. But they will not succeed because we are in the driving seat.
“Today he has failed. What he has achieved is to give a red card [to Mischek Seleman] and unnecessary yellow cards to other players when he knows we have a crucial match on Saturday [against FCB Nyasa Bullets].
However, NFRA general secretary Chris Kalichero said Mponda should refrain from comments that have potential of putting football into disrepute.
He said: “Football club officials should avoid making statements that may put football into disrepute. Any referee can be assigned any match regardless of which region they are based.
“If there are grievances on how a referee has officiated a match, there are channels to use to lodge a complaint.
“There are referees assessors and match commissioners whose responsibility is to address such issues during matches.
“Otherwise, making such statements is very unfortunate for a reputable coach like him even when he feels he is under pressure.”
Sulom general secretary Williams Banda said clubs need to respect rules and regulations.
He said: “Allocation of referees is beyond Sulom, but rather for a competent body [NFRA]. Silver have no power to dictate neither Sulom nor the referees body on who should officiate their matches.”
Banda also warned Silver against narrowing the competition for the title to them and Wanderers when there are 16 teams in the league.
He said: “Let’s refresh our knowledge of the laws of the game to competently argue our cases because the narrowing of competition scope is dangerous.”
Silver lead the log table with a four point gap at 57 points from 25 games while the Nomads follow closely with 53 points from 26 games. Bullets are third with 44 points.
