Fire the incompetent phantom offside official - Bosso vs Dembare

IT is easily the biggest football fixture in Zimbabwe - an advert for our badly-battered national game to the outside world.

Yesterday, Highlanders' meeting with Dynamos at Rufaro was watched across the African continent, thanks to SuperSport.

We could be reflecting on a thoroughly entertaining 3-3 draw - but we, sadly, must report to you at home that Highlanders lost to what was quite simply bizarre officiating blunders.



Match officials can sometimes spoil a good football match, as assistant referee Bongani Gadzikwa proved in Dynamos' laboured 3-2 win over their bitter rivals. Gadzikwa denied Bosso a legitimate goal in the 80th minute for a phantom offside call although replays confirmed that Edmore Muzanenhamo was miles onside for his terrific angled finish, with a Dynamos defender covering.

Everyone in K the stadium, but Gadzikwa, knew it was a goal. The referee gave it. SuperSport counted it on TV, briefly. Dynamos players were already conducting their own postmortem among themselves. Even the most delusional Dembare fans admitted on various social media platforms that Bosso were robbed of a genuine goal.

The match had been fantastic until Gadzikwa's glaring blunder unfairly tipped the balance in Dembare's favour by denying fans a thrilling and just result to the game through either his lack of understanding of the offside rule or his total disregard for common sense.

Yesterday's display by Gadzikwa proved why local officials are rarely given continental assignments because when afforded the chance to display their credentials, they screw up big time. Yesterday's match was screened on pay-per-view channel Supersport 9, after a long hiatus, and it was a disgrace for continental football fans to be subjected to such excruciatingly poor officiating.

Officials make mistakes, but to see one so brazen, almost bordering on match fixing, was an extremely unfortunate way to advertise domestic football to millions on the continent.

Fans were left wondering just how Muzanenhamo was deemed offside when the ball was headed back to him by a teammate marked from behind by a Dynamos defender.

In short, Gadzikwa has ruined Zimbabwean football. The match didn't deserve to be decided by an official who couldn't tell what was plainly obvious.

Match officials must be accountable to high performance levels in the Premiership, but instead of punishing such awful officiating, the Zimbabwe Referees' Committee is likely to close ranks and give silly excuses, particularly the old tired one of them having a split second to make a decision.

If our football is to progress positively, the referees' committee must put in place a thorough and robust review system for all its members to ensure that only the brightest officials take to the field, particularly for Such big encounters.

Although match officials cannot get it right all the time, there are some basic standards that |simply have to be upheld as public confidence in match officials is essential to enhance football development in the country.

The blundering ones like Gadzikwa should be banished from officiating at any level of our football.