{"id":2717,"date":"2021-07-17T12:09:49","date_gmt":"2021-07-17T11:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=2717"},"modified":"2021-07-17T16:36:43","modified_gmt":"2021-07-17T15:36:43","slug":"zesco-robbed-by-poor-officiating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2021\/07\/17\/zesco-robbed-by-poor-officiating\/","title":{"rendered":"Zesco \u2018Robbed\u2019 by Poor Officiating"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (May 27th<\/sup> 2021)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Questionable?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As main rivals Sensational Zanaco sent coach Chistopher Kaunda on the dreaded administrative after shocking officiating gave Buildcon a 4-0 drubbing of Zanaco two days ago \u2013 at least one and possibly two goals were questionable and Zanaco were denied a perfectly good goal \u2013 Zesco United found themselves on the receiving end of bad calls too, losing 3-0 to Prison Leopards in Kabwe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zega Mamba boss, Mumamba Numba, as mild-mannered a man as one could hope to meet, pulled no punches in a dignified response. Club officials also chimed in by accusing the officials of favouring the home side. It probably won\u2019t affect the destination of the title \u2013 Zesco have a significant lead at the top of the log \u2013 but still.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Action Needed<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Mumamba insisted there had to be action after two terrible calls \u2013 one costing the opening goal and the other a player. Referee Evans Mulenga pointed to the spot claiming that Clement Mwape had handled the ball \u2013 replays showed it had hit the player\u2019s back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe officiating of today\u2019s game has contributed to our defeat. The referee didn\u2019t perform to the expectation of everyone. The penalty he gave wasn\u2019t a penalty because the ball hit the player on his back. That also contributed because it gave our opponents power to stay in the game,\u201d said Numba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was far from finished. Kelvin Kampamba, already booked for dissent was denied an advantage. Mulenga hauled back play denying Kampamba any advantage. The player wasn\u2019t happy. There was an exchange of words. The incident was over. As Kampamba was putting the ball down to take the free-kick, Mulenga showed him a second yellow and then red. He had not said anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Numba had a clear view and heard the exchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

A Change Has Gotta Come<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think these kind of decisions can only finish if we also introduce the VAR, because if you look at the first goal that they scored, I think it wasn\u2019t an handball and if you look at the card that was given to my player, I was just here, close to the referee and the play,\u201d Mumamba said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe only thing he asked him \u2013 he asked him, \u2018What do you want?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd then he said the player has insulted me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow do you give a card when somebody\u2019s asked with respect, \u2018Mr referee, what do you want us to do?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen you give a player a red card. It doesn\u2019t work like that. He needs to officiate a game fair so that team can play the game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former Sensational Zanaco and Chipolopolo midfielder was outraged, as he insisted that was all his talented midfielder said, but as usual kept his cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the FAZ referees\u2019 manager, and his people, need to take a great look at how their officials are managing the games. Referees this season have been pathetic. This is something we can\u2019t lie about. They need to do something so that this game of football is developed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (May 27th 2021) Questionable? As main rivals Sensational Zanaco sent coach Chistopher Kaunda on the dreaded administrative after shocking officiating [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2718,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2717\/revisions\/2718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}