By NDINAWE SIMPELWE –
NAPSA Stars chairperson Richard Nawa has implored the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) to consider improving how they deliberate on disputed matches for the development of the game.
The FAZ disciplinary committee on Saturday awarded three points to Lumwana Radiants off Napsa for the Week 17 abandoned game following a protest by Napsa players who walked off the pitch before the final whistle.
Napsa walked off the pitch in protest against a last minute penalty given to Lumwana which they claim their defender handled the ball outside the penalty box.
Nawa said the club respected the decision of the disciplinary committee but was quick to say that a lot was still lacking for FAZ to find better ways of looking at evidence.
He said relying solely on match officials was not enough because there is a lot that happens which the officials could have missed.
“There is nothing we can do, they have ruled against us and we will respect that decision. But going forward, we must look at the way we gather information on the abandoned games. If you look at the list of disciplinary hearings, the abandoned games dominate and this shows you that there is something wrong.
“So there is still a lot to do at FAZ. This idea of getting written evidence from match officials, I think it’s not adequate. There are circumstances that develop for an abandonment to occur. There is need to look at all the circumstances instead of just relying on someone to say this one was wrong,” Nawa said.
Before the game was abandoned, Napsa had a goal disallowed for offside and had their assistant coach sent off.
He said it was a pity that the local game has not reached to a level where video evidence can be used because relying on officials was not helping to develop the game.
Nawa said whatever the match officials said was considered gospel truth adding that it would be interesting to have the match officials being crossed examined by people who watched the game.
“This has told me to jack myself up. We will need to be carrying a video camera to all our games. I think it will help,” said Nawa.
The three awarded points see the Lumwana based side climb out of the relegation Zone to sit on 13th position with 18 points while Napsa drops to 15 position on 17 points.