Sporting a cheese-kop haircut and clad in a grey top, black shorts and matching black stockings with an Adidas logo, Makonese Masakadza ran up and down the pitch as Chicken Inn and CAPS United locked horns on Sunday.
BY BRIAN NKIWANE
The venue was Mandava and the occasion, the NetOne Charity Shield final.
In all of his refereeing career, that match is bound to be one that Masakadza may one day look back and remark; “I spoiled the soup on the last stroke”.
The entire match belonged to the Gamecocks as they managed to score three early goals, only for CAPS United to add a little bit of ingredients to turn the encounter into a thriller, by staging a dramatic comeback to score two quick goals in the last nine minutes of regulation time.
Masakadza had done exceptionally well in the entire match, until the 93rd minute when the moment of madness struck.
He allowed the match to continue for eight more minutes instead of the three minutes of added time.
He ran in the muddy Mandava with his eye pinned to the touchline in anticipation of the fourth official raising the board signaling the three minutes time added on.
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What Masakadza had not realise was that the board had been raised when he was following the action as CAPS United searched for the equaliser.
Some viewed the move as an attempt to aid CAPS United to get the much-needed equaliser and force the match into extra time or penalty shootouts.
However, the Zimbabwe Soccer Referees Association secretary general Tendai Bwanya has broken the silence to clarify the confusion that became the talking point in a match that was screened live on SuperSport 9, and in the process displaying a poor show by our local referee to the entire world.
Bwanya said as an association, they had adopted a Fifa statute that prohibited officials from commenting on the matches that they would have handled.
Coaxed to let the nation know what led Masakadza to add eight more minutes onto that match, Bwanya said, after getting the same complaint from a number of fans, he called Masakadza who admitted having made a mistake.
“When I talked to him, he said it was drizzling in Zvishavane during the match. So when he last looked at both of his watches in the 42nd minute, he discovered that they had been affected by the rains, so had no choice but to signal to the fourth official that they were going to play three minutes added time.
“He went on to tell me that it was unfortunate that he did not see the fourth official raising the added time board. So there was a communication breakdown which then led to the additional time being doubled,” Bwanya said.
He added that the situation could have been worsened by the Chicken Inn bench which was up in arms with the match officials.
The chaos, Bwanya said, distracted the fourth official from concentrating on the game as he tried to make them take their seats. “But above all, the centre man admitted that there was indeed a communication breakdown and he apologised for the mistake.”
Bwanya also made it known that in a football match, it is the referee who decides how much added time should be played in a particular match.
“The idea is to have 90 minutes of playing time. So if anything happens in those few minutes of added time, the referee has the mandate to add more to cover up for the wasted time, especially through injuries. But in this particular case, I understand there were no more stoppages but it was just an issue of communication breakdown,” admitted Bwanya.
Zindoga memorial Cup goes to the wire
THE Zindoga Memorial trophy goes to the wire as four teams that qualified for the semi-finals battle it out at Belgravia Sports Club this afternoon.
The winners of the tournament will be crowned this afternoon.
Zindoga will take on H.P.D in the first semifinal match at 1pm while City Social engages United at the same time. United stormed into the semis for the first time since joining the league a few seasons are ago.
Meanwhile the action continues in the Ruwa Boozers League with eight matches at Chiremba Grounds starting from this morning which marks the second week of their fixtures.
Zindoga Memorial trophy semis fixture:
- l Zindoga vs H.P.D @ 1pm Belgravia Sports
- l City Social vs United @ 1pm Belgravia Sports Club
Ruwa Boozers Week 2 Fixtures
- l 8:30 Flyboat vs Spring Rovers @ Chiremba Grounds
- l 9:30 701 United vs Mutimukulu @ Chiremba Ground
- l 10:30 Media vs Mavambo @ Chiremba Grounds
- l 11:30 Kedebe vs Ruwa Stars @ Chiremba Grounds
- l 12:30 Ruwa Pirates vs Escapedes @Chiremba Ground
- l 13:30 Villa vs Ruwa Gunners @ Chiremba Grounds
- l 14:30 Pentagon vs Villa @Chiremba Grounds
