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| Sports |
| Centre sidelined in referees’ body |
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by
Garry Chirwa, 30 December 2004
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11:02:22
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Southern and Northern Region referees pulled a fast one on their Central Region counterparts who failed to get even a single seat in the National Referees Committee (NRC) during elections held on Monday in Blantyre.
The Central Region-based whistlemen were caught off-guard at the polls where delegates from the South and the North ganged up and in the end left them feeling sick in the stomach.
Retired former Fifa referee Charles Kafatiya was re-elected chairman after beating Lilongwe-based McGovern Mpeni with 22 votes against 14. Alex Mbale from the North cracked the nod for the position of vice chairman, beating another Lilongwe-based ref. Manfred Kawaye by the same votes.
Another Southern Region-based whistleman Mike Mambo was elected general secretary beating another Lilongwe-based contestant Verson Lwanja by the same votes while Kalyoto Ngosi from the North was elected vice general secretary unopposed.
James Dumba, Paul Mhango (South), Zuza Nyondo and Kennedy Jiya (North) were elected executive committee members while a D. Lengani from the Centre withdrew in frustration.
Mambo described the polls as free and fair and said candidates from the Centre lost because they are self-centred.
“The problem with our colleagues from the Centre is that they have the know- it-all attitude, they feel they are above refs from the other two regions and that is where they faltered.
“They do not want to work with others from other regions and that is perhaps the reason why the North and South ganged up against them,” said Mambo.
But a Central Region-based referee Youngson Chilinda, who was one of the delegates at the polls, said referees from the South and Centre had ganged up to “finish off Central Region based referees.”
He added: “With the present set-up, they will have big problems working with Central Region referees. I wouldn’t say the elections were free and fair considering what happened.
“But there is very little we could have done about the situation because our colleagues had already connived and this is detrimental to the development of the game”.
The elections were presided over by Fam executive members Flora Mwandira and Joseph Mapwesera. Also in attendance was another Fam executive member Bester Kalombo who is a referee’s instructor.
Meanwhile the new committee immediately stepped on the gas pedal and stated that it will push Sulom to review referees’ allowances.
“We have requested Sulom for a meeting where among other things we want to ask them to review officiation allowances for referees,” said Mambo.
The new NRC’s spokesman said at the moment a set of referees gets K4,500 which is shared by the officiating personnel which sometimes includes a fourth official.
“I think the allowance is far much on the lower side and it needs reviewing. We’ll have to meet Sulom on the matter before the start of the forthcoming season,” said Mambo.
He said the committee will ask Sulom to increase the allowance from K4,500 ($42) to about K7,500.
Mambo also unveiled the new committee’s ambitious plans which include frequent seminars and courses for the referees.
“Generally there has been notable improvement in officiation by our refs as can be evidenced by frequent allocation of international games and we hope a Malawian referee will be selected to officiate at next year’s Africa Nations Cup finals,” explained Mambo.
He also said from now onwards, the NRC will make sure that there should be a systematic method of upgrading referees..
“We have noted that in the past procedures were not being followed when upgrading referees and we will make sure that it has to be done properly. A referee will have to serve in a category for not less than two years before being upgraded,” said Mambo.
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