By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
Gulf Football Club in a protest letter addressed to the Chairman of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA), the national first division playoffs protest committee (Zone 2), have expressed concerns over ‘poor officiating’ in their final group stage Division One Playoff match against Luawa Football Club in Kenema.
Gulf FC said they were expecting the match officials that were handling such crucial matches to do so with utmost judiciousness and professionalism. It went on to note that, the officials should have known that the outcome of that match will determine the two teams that will progress to the final stage of the competition.
It further stated that the match officials’ performance in that match was said to be anything but judicious or professional and witnessed what they referred to as ‘blatant disregard’ for the principles and spirit of fair play, which they said was clearly a deliberate attempt to prevent their progress to the next stage of the competition.
The letter contextualized the first twenty (20) minutes of the match which it said Luawa FC scored two (2) iffy goals of which the match officials deemed them good enough to stand, in spite of protest made by Gulf officials. Shortly after the two goals scored by Luawa, Gulf were also quick to score their first goal which they said was immediately ruled out by the match officials.
Gulf claimed that almost all of the decisions made in the first half of play went against them, and that it took the match officials forty-two (42) minutes to award a foul in their favour. They questioned on how that would be plausible in what was referred to as a fairly officiated crucial football match like that nature.
It reiterated that, they went on to score three more goals in the second half which they said the official also chalked all off. However, the match referee was remarkably awarded two (2) of the four (4) goals, but unfortunately one of his assistants overruled him on both occasions.
“Keep in mind that those two goals would have evened the scores and a draw of that nature would have been enough to send us through to the next stage,” the letter reads.
It was also noted that, by the time they scored their second goal, every neutral spectator who witnessed the match that day realized that something wrong was happening with the match officials, which also left Gulf officials to realize that those officials were only interested in one outcome.
“We could have scored ten (10) goals during that match, and, we are certain, those officials would have ruled all of them out. The poor officiating of the match nearly resulted in its premature and chaotic, had it not been our intervention. We believe the match was rigged,” the letter claimed.
Gulf maintained that it was not only their view that the match was rigged, neutral spectators that were said to have witnessed what they referred to as ‘dastardly adulteration’ of the game also expressed similar views.
The club recalled having endured a similar experience of poor officiating in their 2001 playoff, and had hoped that this time round bad officiating would have been addressed.
“It seems we are still rooted on the same spot, to have to endure this same experience again, at a time we thought football in Sierra Leone is heading towards the right direction, and this has broken us. It has eroded every bit of hope we harbored hitherto,” the statement continued.
Gulf craved on the indulgence of the SLFA Chairman to investigate the match in question and to do the needful.
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