Day -567 WorldCup2018
This is going back a few days but even though I was caught up in the Toronto FC excitement I couldn't forget about it.
CAF’s (Confederation of African Football) Referees Committee announced its’ decisions regarding the performance of four of the referees officiating matches in the latest round of World Cup qualifiers. It is unusual for any confederation to issues such public rebukes of its’ referees. UEFA would never do it even if a referee has committed an obvious mistake. The individual in question usually just disappears from any football matches for a few months. There may be a question that UEFA do this so that they cannot accept any blame for a decision that had a significant effect on the result of the match. This argument goes out the window when you consider that despite CAF’s suspensions and admission of refereeing errors there is nothing that can be done about the results of the matches in question. The teams that lost and are crying foul can keep doing so until Russia 2018 starts and they are not part of it. Nothing will change.
CAF has suspended two referees and one assistant (a linesman to many of us) and warned another assistant. The committee published a list of its’ decisions, together with a description of the offences which I cannot not help but find amusing even though I have to keep in mind that it’s not funny for the teams who were on the wrong end of these offences.
Joseph Lamptey has been suspended for three months for incorrectly awarding a penalty to South Africa in their 2-1 win against Senegal. He “awarded a wrong penalty for handball despite the fact that the ball never touched the hand of the player”. The assistant signalled a corner and, apparently, even the South African players were ready to take the corner. He was also cited for “poor performance”.
Davies Omweno was also suspended for three months for another “poor performance.” His crime was “wrong positioning and movement, incorrect identification of fouls and failure to administer some disciplinary sanctions”, in the Libya-Tunisia match. Tunisia won 1-0 and Libya were denied a perfectly valid goal. The assistant in that match, Berhe O’Michael, was guilty of “offside decisions including one denying a valid goal by Libya.” He, of course, also had a “poor performance.” And the other assistant, Theogene Ndagijimana got off with a warning as he “missed multiple basic offside decisions which denied teams’ promising attacks.” And, yes, he too had a “poor performance.”
These public shamings make you think that CAF are trying to send a message that they will not stand for any mistakes by their officials and that they, the referees, are actually bring shame on African football. These four individuals may be the sacrificial lambs, used as examples of what may happen if any referee or assistant is so unfortunate as to be unsighted and make a wrong decision. Even though I am one who believes that terrible refereeing has influenced the outcome of many a match, this sets a bit of an uneasy precedence for referees. Their performances are analysed constantly during a match, after a match in super slow motion and in newspapers, social media and all over the internet. Now their own confederation is showing them up for moments of incompetence. What a great way to instill confidence in your officials.
This disciplining by CAF may not be working very well anyway. Lamptey was suspended for 6 months in 2010 for wrongly awarding a goal in a CAF Champions League semi-final.
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