AfricaPress-Tanzania: The Tanzania Premier League Board (TPLB) yesterday admitted that they have received an official complaint letter from Azam FC about unfair refereeing in their recent goalless draw against Young Africans.
The two sides shared spoils during an eye catching encounter which unfolded at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam last Sunday maintained their respective second and third slots on the league table.
However, clarifying on the development, TPLB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Almas Kasongo conceded to have received the letter saying they are going through it.
“The focus of their letter is that they are not satisfied with the way it was managed by referees on the day as such, the board through its league management committee will watch again the match to identify the shortfalls. “As secretariat, our job is to receive the letter, go through it and send it to the concerned section for the appropriate decision to be taken,” he said.
The match that ended in a barren draw was officiated by Elly Sasii assisted with Mbaraka Haule and Soud Lila, and the ice-cream maker club complained that the officials made some serious slip-ups to deny them a spot-kick and two legit goals flagged for offside.
Aristica Cioaba sides was denied a goal netted by Abdallah Kheri who tapped in Iddi Selemani ‘Nado ‘ for in an offside position and later in 47th minute , attacking midfielder Never Tigere met the same decision after netting a goal from Richard Djod assist.
And in the last quarter of the game overlapping defender Nicholas Wadada was fouled in the box but was denied a spot kick .
However, in a separate interview, Azam FC Chief Executive Officer Abdulkarim Amin said there were some decisions made during the match which were not fair to them.
“After gathering enough evidence, we have followed the right procedures to voice out our complaints by writing a formal letter to TPLB for them to hear our part. “This is not the first time for us to write a letter of such kind. Even after the 3-2 match against Simba, we also wrote them (TPLB) a complaint letter following biased decisions against us of which they have not responded until now,” said he.
He continued: “As a club, we invest a lot into the team to get good results hence when such unfair decisions are made; it becomes a setback for the club since there are no benefits.”
“Whenever we play against big teams (Simba and Yanga), we always become victims of poor refereeing and this has been going on for a long period now,” the CEO said.
He then proposed that whenever they face Simba or Yanga, the number of referees should be added like the way done when Yanga and Simba meet.
Most pundits who watched the game believes that the two goals scored by Azam before they were rejected for offside offence were clear goals and that they were also denied one spot kick.
