sports

Feb. 27, 2021

TEBOHO JAFETA

3 min read

Players assault Lesotho referee in Zambia

Players assault Lesotho referee in Zambia

Lesotho central referee Lebalang Mokete escapes the wrath of Kenyan players

Metro Audio Articles

Catch our weekly audio news daily only on Metro Radio Podcast News.

listen now

LESOTHO’s central referee Lebalang Mokete was assaulted by players of a Kenyan club called Gor Mahia FC after awarding a penalty which saw Zambia’s Napsa Stars proceeding to the group stages of the CAF Confederation Cup in Lusaka, Zambia on Sunday.

Mokete officiated the match alongside fellow countrymen Shaun Dlangamandla and Mapoho Mapoho as his first and second assistant referees with Osias Koto as the fourth official.

The four had to leave the sports field under heavy police as the Gor Mahia players were relentlessly baying for their blood.

The Kenyan champions faced challenges before they landed in Lusaka for the return leg fixture after their first trip was aborted on Friday.

The team had to travel on Sunday, and only arrived in Lusaka two hours before kick-off at the National Heroes Stadium.

Ironically, Gor Mahia started the match much stronger than their opponents and took the lead in the 16th minute when winger Samuel Onyango, who did not start in the first leg battle at the Nyayo Stadium, broke the deadlock to hand the jet-lagged visitors an unlikely lead.

Two minutes after conceding, Napsa Stars equalised through Austin Banda with a well-timed effort past Boniface Oluoch, but a determined Gor Mahia fought back and responded quickly to restore their lead in the 19th minute through left winger Clifton Miheso.

Gor Mahia then held onto the lead until the added minutes when Napsa Stars were awarded the controversial penalty, which veteran striker Emmanuel Mayuka converted for the Pensioners, who then advanced courtesy of a 3-2 aggregate win after a 1-0 victory in Nairobi.

Gor Mahia coach Carlos Manuel Vaz Pinto has vented his anger at the match officials for the decision they took to award the penalty and has maintained that his side was the better team in the two-legged affair, adding that they also deserved to qualify despite the challenges they faced before the two matches.

“What I can say is if you come to play here or another game, we always fight to win and this is the spirit of Gor Mahia always and what I feel in Nairobi was we are better in the game, Napsa Stars don’t have one clear chance to score in Nairobi but they scored because it was one individual mistake,” Pinto told reporters after the game.

“And today [Sunday] we played very well, we fought for the result, we deserved to get the group stage but this is football, sometimes people say this is Africa but am sorry, I don’t agree to this, what people say, for football to grow in Africa, we need to stop such kind of things [not a clear penalty].

Enjoy our daily newsletter from today

Access exclusive newsletters, along with previews of new media releases.

“We analysed them before the game in Nairobi and what I feel is one team always playing long balls, football direct and always trying to reach strikers through the wingers, they don’t build a lot and they have some impressive good players but what I think they don’t deserve to qualify because we were better than them.

“We are not better, yes, but compared to them [Napsa Stars], we were better than them and I cannot talk about their chances in the group stage because we are very sad about it, about the way we got eliminated,” he added.

Meanwhile, Napsa Stars coach Mohamed Fathi told the media briefing that it was not easy to win the two-legged tie against the powerhouse Gor Mahia.

“We thank all the management of Napsa Stars for making this possible. Football is 90 minutes plus added time, so any minute anything can happen. You should fight until the last whistle.  When you play in any game, you have to fight up to the end,” Fathi also said.

Share the story

METRO WEATHER FORECAST