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The Nigerian lesson
Before I get carried away with other issues, I have to register my heartfelt congratulations to Bakili Bullets for doing the country proud last Saturday. They have made history and should continue aiming even higher. Of course I need to caution them against being overconfident because they nearly blew it at Chichiri as they seemed to have won the match before the kickoff whistle was blown.
My good Saturday was even made better by Liverpool’s win over Manchester United. This was the third time in four years that Danny Murphy has snatched the winner for the Mighty Reds against the Red Devils and as Sir Alex Ferguson rightly noted, whatever people might say about Gerard Houllier, the Frenchman has the best record of any visiting manager at Old Trafford.
That was Nkhani Za M’maboma. Today I wanted to discuss what has been described as a bizarre soccer incident. Nigeria’s league leaders Dolphins FC scored in the 87th minute against Plateau United on April 18 and because of the crowd trouble that characterised the entire match, the referee disallowed the goal.
But in his match report, the referee awarded the goal and declared Dolphins winners. The league has since confirmed the result that gave the Garden City side an eight-point advantage at the top ahead of Iwuanyanwu Nationale.
My immediate reaction to the story was that the referee was wrong and the league should not have accepted the result, but Supersport panellists during the African Soccer programme on Tuesday hailed the referee for using common sense. This brought me home and to the match between Bakili Bullets and MTL Wanderers in the Carlsberg Cup finals last year.
Could referee Joseph Chihana have done the same on that day? Would Fam and the Bullets have accepted the result? I doubt, but here is that for a lesson. Unless the Supersport panellists are wrong, our referees have the opportunity to declare a different result in their report and they have no excuse for sticking to controversy.
Talk of lessons, did we learn anything from the embarrassment in Mozambique where our athletes were sent back because of failure by our authorities to meet their obligations? I bet not, because this is not the first time we have failed to participate in a tournament for failing to do the right things at the right time.
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