Dynamos coach, Lloyd Mutasa, has said that only referees and linemen should have the final rule on goals not football fans.
The premier league match between Highlanders and Dynamos was abandoned after violence erupted in the stands and against the officials in the 42nd minute after Dynamos’ Cameroonian forward, Christian Ntouba Epoupa, had scored an equalizer.
The match was forced to end prematurely as the Bosso faithful pelted objects into the field of play, targeting far assistant referee, Thomas Kusasa, whom they accused of allowing an offside goal.
Speaking in the wake of the cancelled ‘battle of Zimbabwe’ at Barboufields in Bulawayo on Sunday, Mutasa said match decisions are better left to the officials.
“You know when a referee or linesman signals a goal . . . they are the only people who can say this is a goal or not. And we have to abide by that . . . I’m sure the referee said it was a goal and I would like to take it like so,” Mutasa told journalists during the club’s training session in Harare on Tuesday.
In a press release yesterday by the Premier Soccer League (PSL)’s Communications and Media Liaison Officer, Kudzai Bare, which has cited rules that were violated, the local football governing body has summoned Highlanders to appear before a disciplinary committee on the 23rd of May were action will be taken against the club. Highlanders could face huge fines for violence and disruption of the match.
The president of the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA), Dr. Philip Chiyangwa, has lashed out at football hooligans who have a culture of violence, not only those who caused the abandonment of the match at Babourfields on Sunday, but in other places recently, accusing them of causing Zimbabwean football to be a ‘sore sight’.
Some critics have come out and argued that violence during the ‘battle of Zimbabwe’ between Highlanders and Dynamos has a traceable long history of many years and suggested that when Highlanders host the ‘Zimbabwe derby’ it be moved from Barboufields to Ascot Stadium in Gweru or be played in an empty stadium as a worst case scenario.
Mutasa, however, said Dynamos have moved on from the match and are now focusing on their next match against Black Rhinos the National Sports Stadium on Thursday.
“To us that game is [gone]; we are no longer concentrating on that game. We played that game though we never finished. It was a scenario that we don’t have control over. What we can only take form that game is that the game was cancelled when we were now taking the game to Highlanders . . .” Mutasa said.