Poor officiation:Malawi's perenial problem

Referee Bester Banda is MTL Wanderers' new found devil: He messed up their Saturday game with perenial arch-rivals Big Bullets as he displayed, with great prowess and skill, the anti-thesis of good refereeing. Ask Nomads, as Wanderers are known, coach Rahman Gumbo.

When the Zimbabwean coach left Harare two seasons ago to join an ambitious Wanderers, little did he know it was here he would experience "the most gluesome refereeing ever".

"I have never seen such poor officiation before. With that sort of gamesmanship Malawi's soccer can never develop. These people in black and white are killing the game," said Gumbo, immediately after the titanic game at Malawi's soccer mecca, the Kamuzu Stadium.

Kamuzu himself, under which the stadium is named, was a man of high standards, and would, surely, have not liked the mediocre workmanship exhibited by the Zomba soldier, Banda.

So confused was he at his own game that, twice, he denied the Bullets a clear penalty when Nomads defenders seemed to slash Bullets lethal, but almost useless, striver Divason Mlozi.

The other time it was Ptros Mwalweni, the Bullets defender-turned Nomads striker in the 26th minute, when he pointed his seemingly inflexible head towards his own net, beat dread-rocked Goal-keeper, Trust Lunda, who should by all standards be a reggae musician and not stick-holder (goalkeeper) as he forces himself to be for the cash-stripped Bullets. Then? He scored in his own net.

1-0 for the Nomads.
The goal itself came from a seemingly questionable free-kick that, for unknown reasons, was made to be played twice.

Bullets coach, Mabvuto Banda, also blamed the referee for poor officiation, describing him as the worst he has encountered so far.
"He is a pathetic referee. An enemy of Malawi soccer," said Lungu.

Nomads' fan Jonathan Phiri summed it all: "That Banda is our enemy number one. He should start farming,"
Give Bester Banda a farm, give him maize to grow, and see if he will reap.

"He will also fail that," said Phiri.
As Malawi prepares for the 2010 World Cup, it remains to be seen whether poor officiation really has an impact on ambitions.

Whether the misdeeds of Banda should really be an excuse for what may come in Malawi's campaign- so far threatened by Egypt, so far far-fetched by the goals and points tally for Democratic Republic of Congo.

At the end of 90 minutes, as Nomads fans threw a little concrete stones on the artificial Kamuzu stadium turf, and as players clad in white-and-blue colours mobbed a hapless Banda, poor officiation stood tall as Malawi's enemy number one.

But Super League of Malawi president, Henry Chibowa, hopes. And hopes aloud:
"We shall be able to come around the problem of poor officiation. Just give these referees much more games, international exposure, and refresher courses, and (then) we are there,"

Malawians are waiting for the definition of 'there'.