Referee Mujini (Tanzania) was chased and assaulted by Yanga players during the Vodafone Premier League match with Azam FC, after he send off Yanga's Niyonzima for a 2CT abusive language act after being booked earlier for a late challenge. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMY4QVjIsvM"]STEPHANO MWASIKA -iPhone.m4v - YouTube[/ame] The Yanga Coach condemned the actions of his players after the referee had a abusive language send-off in the 11th minute, http://bit.ly/yYOywX. Yanga's chairman described the referee's action as "gross incompetence" and were thinking over logding an appeal to the Tanzanian Football Federation, http://bit.ly/yuRJFP.
Protest denied. Further, in response to the protest itself, the player+club fines and suspensions are hereby doubled in amount and length respectively. Love, The Federation.
2 notes to self: 1) If CR and you get punched, abandon immediately. 2) If AR and CR gets punched, tell him to abandon immediately. If he refuses, punch him till he comes to his senses. What good could possibly come from hanging around or going back out there. Just get out and do the paperwork someplace safe.
WOW. The quotes from Yanga's chairman (channeling his inner Jack Warner) are classic. I'm sure this "secret plan" is really happening, and Scully and Mulder are investigating to see if the "Smoking Man" is behind it all. And, I have to say, that referee is stronger than me - the first time they chased me and landed a punch, that game is hereby abandoned and I'm on the first train to "getdaheckoutahere"
African soccer, even at the professional level, tolerates a lot of stuff that we don't allow. The decision on this incident will be heavily influenced by who's part of the inner circle, who represents which tribe, etc. The rule of law gets pretty shaky. We had a referee here some years ago, a guy who was about a middling grade 7 in skills, whose work sent him to Kenya for about eight months. While he was there, he was assigned to referee a semi-final of the national championship! With the whistle!! Why? The teams came from different tribes and, being white, our guy was neutral. Maybe not the finest referee available, but he didn't come from one of the tribes that were playing. Better 'incompetent' than bias. I have a friend who is both a fellow referee and a Catholic priest, who comes from Nigeria. He told me that it is fairly common for priests and seminarians in Nigeria to be soccer referees. The level of corruption goes so deep that it is standard procedure to bribe the referee on even a Sunday afternoon old guys playing in the park game. The thinking is that with a priest or seminarian holding the whistle, you are more likely to get a fair shake.
I grew up playing in St. Louis. Catholic school league. It was quite common for priests to be coaches, which was really cool cuz they were still wearing the robes in public back then. I remember seeing guys juggling with long black cassocks (sp?) on. Really hilarious. But a REF? Never saw that. I wonder if you can serve a red by going to confession?
Ah, I can see it now... If you say a quick act of contrition it would be downgraded to a caution, or just a warning. AND, do priest refs categorize yellow and red card offenses and such or as venial and mortal fouls? AND, in the event of a send-off, while the sent off player is on the bench they have to say 10 Our Fathers and 10 Hail Marys! Tip your wait staff! Try the veal!
And the sanctions that were then handed out: http://in2eastafrica.net/yanga-pay-heavy-price-for-violence/ Of course, the scale is a bit different - the 1MM shilling fine to be paid by one of the players = approx US$626, which is a bit over two year's average annual Tanzanian salary. Not sure what the average salary is for players in the league.