By Bonface Osano,
“Today, the referee was biased towards Gor Mahia . He gave them every advantage and even that goal came after a player Ali Abondo had handled the ball. It clearly shows they are being favoured and no wonder they struggle at continental level.”
Those were the sentiments of Muhoroni Youth Coach Francis Baraza after his side went down 1-0 in the hands of Gor Mahia at the Kisumu’s Moi Stadium on Sunday 24th.
The sentiments are not isolated, most, if not all the Kenyan Premier League coaches who have lost to the reigning league Champions this season have expressed the same views.
The levels of officiating this season has been way below per, no doubt about it, and I could give a thousand and one cases right across board of poor calls by refs that qualify my above statement.
The situation has been largely attributed to the fact that all FIFA accredited referees are officiating in the lower league, the Football Kenya Federation Premier League instead of handling the top tier league as is the norm, thanks to the standoff between the Kenya FA and the Kenyan Premier League Limited which is the company overseeing the top tier league.
If then the bad calls are across board, are KPL coaches justified in their claims that Gor Mahia are being favoured? Can they be put to task to explain their allegations for the sake of reputation of a league which is beamed live a cross Africa?
I believe so, in developed leagues, any comments about referees that put a league is disrepute are highly punished, take for example Jose Mourinho the coach of English Premier League Champions Chelsea, when he claimed in a post match interview that there was ‘campaign to influence referees’ when his player Cesc Fabregas was denied a penalty in a match against Southampton, he was fined 25,000 euros about 2.68 Million Kenya shillings by current rates.
The English FA in their ruling had these to say,”Following an Independent Regulatory Commission hearing, Jose Mourinho has been fined £25,000 after he was found to have breached FA Rules in relation to media comments.”
“The Independent Regulatory Commission found the comments were a breach of FA Rule E3 in that they were improper and brought the game into disrepute.”
In as much as things appear to be out of control in the Kenyan situation, the reputation of the league that has taken quite sometime to develop to it’s current level where it can be mentioned among best leagues in Africa must be guarded jelously, not to say the genuine refereeing concerns should be swept under the carpet but we should be careful not to allow every under performing coach to use this one issue as an excuse or as a scapegoat to appease their employers.
Referees are humans and hence at times they error, granted, but when they show incompetence and they fail to execute their duties diligently,then they should not escape punishment, this will restore confidence in our league.
The league body and the Kenya FA should come together in good faith and in the best interest of our game to sort out this mess before things go out of hand.
Poor refereeing has been cited as one of the major causes of fans trouble in our stadiums, and with the current trend no one knows what will transpire in case a ref’s call will determine outcome of a match involving the big two.
Find me on twitter @bonfaceosano
