{"id":68172,"date":"2018-07-07T06:21:53","date_gmt":"2018-07-07T04:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=68172"},"modified":"2018-07-07T06:21:53","modified_gmt":"2018-07-07T04:21:53","slug":"enough-of-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2018\/07\/07\/enough-of-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Enough of violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

WITH PILIRANI KACHINZIRI:<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was another week of shame for Malawi football as irate Nyasa Big Bullets supporters ran amok at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe last Sunday, vandalising stadium facilities after they lost 1-0 to Blue Eagles in the Airtel Top 8 final match.<\/p>\n

Several people were injured and tear-gassed as some short-fused supporters were involved in running battles with the police after the game.<\/p>\n

Stadium equipment and facilities were damaged and referee Misheck Juwa, looking confused and helpless, temporarily suspended his brevity and faced the reality of being beaten up by supporters and players.<\/p>\n

The genesis of it all was the collision between Bullets left-back Yamikani Fodya and advancing Eagles\u2019 midfielder Gilbert Chirwa in the 18-yard box.<\/p>\n

Video replays show that Fodya cleared the ball first before bundling Chirwa to the floor. Referee Juwa adjudged Fodya to have committed a foul; hence, the decision to award the penalty-kick to Eagles in stoppage time.<\/p>\n

Veteran referee Bester Kalombo, after reviewing the video clip of the incident in an embargoed Times Television programme, concluded that the referee erred in awarding a penalty to Eagles because Fodya had tossed the ball first before the contact with the Eagles\u2019 player.<\/p>\n

Kalombo schooled me that a referee was supposed to be 10 meters close to the action as per Fifa requirement but Juwa was miles away, watching the incident as a mere spectator.<\/p>\n

No wonder, he made a shocking and wayward decision which painfully separated the winners from the losers in this lucrative competition.<\/p>\n

It was a brave decision that could be equated to suicide bombing at a fully packed market-place.<\/p>\n

However, it is unfair to blame the referee alone. Those who made the decision to throw him into such an enormous battle should also squarely shoulder the blame.<\/p>\n

There are many experienced and competent referees who could have handled the game better, than assigning a referee who could not even use his sixth sense when it mattered most.<\/p>\n

His delivery was contrary to the expectations of many as, at times, he lacked class and composure. Given a choice, Bullets supporters would recommend that he be thrown into an everlasting bonfire.<\/p>\n

Bullets management have issued a press release, condemning their own supporters for the unruly behaviour, though they blamed partly the referee for the violence.<\/p>\n

No one would condone such irresponsible and undignified behaviour.<\/p>\n

Bullets must be told in no uncertain terms that football is unfair in a sense that a referee\u2019s decision is final, no matter how painful it may be.<\/p>\n

Football is a game which never goes with a script.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WITH PILIRANI KACHINZIRI: It was another week of shame for Malawi football as irate Nyasa Big Bullets supporters ran amok at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe last Sunday, vandalising stadium facilities after they lost 1-0 to Blue Eagles in the Airtel Top 8 final match. Several people were injured and tear-gassed as some short-fused supporters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68172","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\/68172","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=68172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68175,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68172\/revisions\/68175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}