Date Of Article: 4/5/2002
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‘Disqualify Bullets’
By: Leonard Sharra
Organisers of the Women in Business (Wib) fund-raising mini tournament have recommended to the Ministry of Gender, Youth and Community Services that Total Big Bullets be disqualified from the tournament and fined for refusing to go into a penalty shootout during their match against MTL Wanderers at Chichiri Stadium last Saturday. Wib’s Southern Region fund-raising chairman Kelvin Mmangisa said in an interview yesterday that his committee had recommended that MTL Wanderers go through to the final to meet Silver Strikers, who beat Moyale Barracks 2-0 on the same day. “The Ministry asked us to come up with a recommendation and we have done that. Normally if one team walks out of the match it is supposed to lose the game. We are saying Wanderers should continue and Big Bullets should be disqualified and fined. We gave them money (K110,000) and they have to pay back a percentage,” said Mmangisa. Mmangisa said it would now be up to the Gender, Youth and Community Services Minister, Mary Kaphwereza Banda to approve or disapprove the recommendation. “We have done our part and the Minister will have the final say,” he said. The official deplored the conduct by Bullets officials to allow players to go for a beer bash at the expense of a match. “We expected the officials to be responsible. If we continue like this our football will not improve,” said Mmangisa. Bullets’ general secretary Krishna Achutan declined to comment on the issue, saying he would rather wait for written communication. But his MTL Wanderers counterpart, Willy Kalonga said his club had already made a stand on the issue. “If the minister says she doesn’t recognise the organising committee’s determination, we will not play the game. We will simply allow our colleagues to proceed. Each game has fixed rules and the rules of that game were made known to us before the game. Even if the rules were not made available, the basic rules were going to apply because there was supposed to be a winner,” said Karonga. The Ministry’s Deputy Director for Gender Mary Shawa said her ministry would be guided by Fam or Fifa constitution when passing the final verdict. Shawa disclosed that the final match had been shifted from this Saturday to April 20, a development Mmangisa said, was not related to the Big Bullets/MTL Wanderers’ case. “Some of the (dignitaries) we invited for the final have other engagements,” said Mmangisa, who is also a football administrator.
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