Kasongo: TPLB to investigate Azam FC complaint after Yanga SC draw

BetOdds Ligi kuu Bara Young Africans v Azam Young Africans Azam

The league managers have promised to investigate claims from the ‘Ice Cream Makers’ after the 0-0 draw at National Stadium

The Tanzania Premier League Board (TPLB) have promised to get to the bottom of a complaint filed by Azam FC citing unfair refereeing during their Mainland Premier League match against Young Africans (Yanga SC) on Sunday.

On Tuesday, the ‘Ice Cream Makers’ lodged an official complaint to the TPLB against the three officials who were in charge of their game away to Yanga.

In the match that ended in a goalless draw at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam, Elly Sasii was the centre referee with Mbaraka Haule and Soud Lila assisting him.

According to Azam, the trio made some grave mistakes - a denied penalty for either side and two legit goals flagged for offside.

"We have written to the board regarding the officiating witnessed on Sunday in a league game away to Yanga," read the letter to the TPLB and obtained by Goal.

"Azam were denied a legit goal scored by Abdallah Kheri who converted an Iddi Selemani cross with the officials arguing the former was in an offside position which is not true.

"The same happened in the 47th minute, this time around Never Tigere converting a Richard Djodi pass, but again the assistant referee flagged the goal scorer for offside which again was not the case.

"With 15 minutes to go, our defender Nicholas Wadada was fouled in the danger zone and we expected the referee to award [Azam] a penalty. To our dismay, the referee waved play-on and the opportunity was lost.”

TPLB CEO Almas Kasongo has confirmed receipt of the complaint from Azam and promised to do a thorough investigation on the matter.

“The focus of their letter is 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,” Kasongo is quoted by Daily News.

“As the 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.”

Azam CEO Abdulkarim Amin also said in a separate interview there were some decisions that did not go their way during the fixture.

“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,” Amin explained to Daily News.

“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.

“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.”

2020-06-24 10:00:04

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