By: Ollus Ndomu
Ethiopian referee, Lydia Tafese Abebe forcefully hibernated on social media after her decision to award South Africa a contestable penalty in their July 18, WAFCON semi-final match against Zambia caused an uproar among soccer fans and experts across the Southern Africa.
The aftermath of the match saw Zambian social media spaces teeming with comments that lambasted Ref Abebe, calling on her resignation, formal apology including an action from the Confederation of African Football -CAF-.
“We will wait for her to activate [her Facebook page] then we will continue from where we ended insulting her,” Ben Josh Kezya.
“That is not a panality, that is reason fifa don’t give you Africa referee chance in world Cup,” Ndumbisi Obi.
“We will be monitoring social media and be ready for her when she returns in that space,” Phield Ngwegwe.
South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundown’s coach Jerry Shabalala also contested the penalty saying:
“I’m honestly not happy [with] the way South Africa won the game against Zambia. That wasn’t a penalty. I’m sure we could have just won fairly not in that manner. It’s unacceptable.”
In its first statement following the match, the Football Association of Zambia -FAZ- petitioned the outcome of the match, asking CAF among other things to order a replay between the two teams.
“We therefore wish to contest against the decision of the referee to award such a penalty resulting in a goal which decided against our team progressing to the finals as we call for a serious review of the game,” read part of the FAZ appeal statement in part.
“We call for the penalty to be cancelled, that a replay be ordered and that the referee be barred from handling any games.”
According to the FAZ, this year’s WAFCON played in Morocco has been fraught with poor officiating biased against its team, the Copper Queens, but wondered why CAF was not taking any punitive actions:
“We have further noted with great concern the poor officiating that characterised the tournament specifically our games. We recorded similar incidents of poor match officiating by referees who have gone scot-free among them referee Bouchra Karboubi who has continued to handle games at the tournament as if nothing happened.”
Meanwhile, CAF threw out the petition by FAZ without releasing a comprehensive statement so that fans in Zambia and around the region became more infuriated.
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