{"id":54208,"date":"2017-09-27T10:44:22","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T08:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=54208"},"modified":"2017-09-27T10:44:25","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T08:44:25","slug":"4-referees-banned-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2017\/09\/27\/4-referees-banned-for-life\/","title":{"rendered":"4 referees banned for life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>N<\/strong>ational Referees Association (NRA) has banned Grade One referee George Aziz Nyirenda and his three colleagues for life after they were allegedly found guilty of match-fixing.<\/p>\n<p>NRA General Secretary, Chris Kalichero, confirmed on Monday that they meted out stiff punishment to Nyirenda, Limbani Chisambi, Stephano Gomani and Jimmy Phiri (Grade Two) because match-fixing \u201cbrings the game of football into total disrepute\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe hearing we had on September 23 clarified that the issue of match-fixing is a serious offence, and it is one of the things that are degrading football in the country and the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd the Disciplinary Committee [of NRA] thought it wise to do so [banning the referees] as a means of wiping out this shame once and for all,\u201d Kalichero said.<\/p>\n<p>NRA has issued the ban a month after Northern Region Referees Committee (NRRC) suspended the referees on allegations that they pocketed K15,000 from Nchalo United to influence their round-of-32 Carlsberg Cup game against Chitipa United played at Mzuzu Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Chitipa won the tie 3-2 on post-match penalties after it ended one-all in regulation time.<\/p>\n<p>The loss prompted some Nchalo official to confront Nyirenda to return the money, but he allegedly only paid back K10, 000 and reportedly shared the remainder with a colleague\u2014leaving out two others.<\/p>\n<p>NRRC found all the referees guilty during a hearing held on July 22, before NRA picked up the matter, resulting in the ban.<\/p>\n<p>Chisambi, who was the first assistant referee to Nyirenda during the game, on Monday confirmed his punishment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, I was called by [Football Association of Malawi] Referees Development officer Mr [Maxwell] Mtonga Tuesday (Sunday). I am God-fearing and I feel dejected because I never took any share of the money. I refereed matches with passion and I am saddened to end up in this manner,\u201d Chisambi lamented.<\/p>\n<p>NRRC General Secretary, Clement Kanduku, has since described the ban as a big blow to the region\u2019s refereeing community.<\/p>\n<p>He, however, said the punishment should be a wake-up call to all referees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is a big blow considering that it takes time to groom a referee who can handle big matches. It is a lesson to the rest. But teams also have to stop such acts because they are the ones that tempt referees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>FACTS<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In 2016, Nyirenda was also banned for two months for serious technical errors after failing to award Mafco a penalty in a game against Moyale Barracks at Mzuzu Stadium.<\/li>\n<li>In 2014, Super League of Malawi recommended the punishment of Nyirenda for failing to stamp his authority in a game involving Silver Strikers and Moyale at Mzuzu Stadium.<\/li>\n<li>Last year, referee Roy Williams was also banned for life over incompetence<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>National Referees Association (NRA) has banned Grade One referee George Aziz Nyirenda and his three colleagues for life after they were allegedly found guilty of match-fixing. NRA General Secretary, Chris Kalichero, confirmed on Monday that they meted out stiff punishment to Nyirenda, Limbani Chisambi, Stephano Gomani and Jimmy Phiri (Grade Two) because match-fixing \u201cbrings the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":54211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54214,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54208\/revisions\/54214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}