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Sharuko on Saturday
REMARKABLY, parts of their charade which, for a fleeting moment this week turned them into some obscure reality TV stars as their madness played out live on television, even managed to produce a show whose snippets were part of the menu for SuperSport’s Soccer Africa programme on Thursday night.

Amazingly, not even Sizwe Mabhena and his cast of wise men could agree with the good Nigerian pastor, Idah Peterside, saying the Dynamos goal at Barbourfields on Sunday should have stood while Thomas Kwenaite and Jeff Katala argued the effort should have been ruled out for offside.

Incredibly, even after they had viewed replays again and again in that studio, they simply couldn’t agree whether Christian Ntoupa was offside, which doesn’t only demonstrate the complexity of judging that incident, but exposes those who rushed to repeatedly pronounce judgment with some suggesting it was so glaringly clear even a pilot in a jumbo jet would have made the right call to disallow it.

Interestingly, as the international experts who write and amend these rules, the ultimate authorities in making such decisions, tell us that it’s too close to call they need more time to review the television footage, one gets a feeling there are some, among us, starting to get that sinking feeling they were probably wrong to jump to conclusions and nail that defenceless assistant referee.

Poor Thomas Kusosa, just five months ago, there he was celebrating his finest hour when he was being honoured as the first runner-up to 2016 Referee of the Year, Ruzive Ruzive, when domestic football gathered for its annual prize-giving show where those who would have excelled are feted like kings.

Of course, he couldn’t win the Referee of the Year award because, the way they do it in this country, that gong always goes to the best centre referee while the best assistant referee during the season is handed the first runner-up award.

If one considers these awards as the hallmark for excellence, then Kusosa has been the best assistant referee in the domestic Premiership in the past five years as he was voted the first runner-up in 2012, second runner-up in 2013, second runner-up in 2014 and first runner-up last year.

He is also a member of the FIFA panel of international assistant referees and this year was supposed to be a special year for him because, after all, he turns 30.

However, no matter what he does from now onwards in his refereeing career, Kusosa will always be remembered as the assistant referee who was at the heart of the controversy that led to the abandonment of the country’s biggest club football game, in the first half, for the first time in this blockbuster showdown’s history.

That’s the way the world is, that’s the way the world will always be and that’s the way the world has always been, even in the days when William Shakespeare was writing his classic plays like Julius Caesar because, as Anthony told them, “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones.’’

But, even if we all agree that Kusosa badly blundered in making that call — which, of course, isn’t true because that is yet to be confirmed by experts still reviewing that decision with even the world’s top refereeing expert telling The Herald that it’s too tight a call for him to make because the footage he has reviewed is inconclusive for a determination to be made — the big question remains.

Did that warrant those hooligans to force the abandonment of such a big game in the first half when it was still only tied 1-1?

A game which their Bosso, given the penetrative ability and energy they had shown that afternoon — on a day when they had the backing of one of their biggest support base in their fortress for a very, very, long time — had the potential of winning in the second half?

An opponent their Bosso had stretched to a penalty shootout, in its backyard, just a few weeks ago in the Independence Cup final with their men showing a remarkable never-say-die spirit to find the equaliser deep in time added on and force the spot-kick lottery?

An opponent that, if you ask me, was there for the taking given that it still remains trapped in its delicate rebuilding exercise and which had, in its ranks, a number of players playing in such a cauldron, in which the majority of the fans were supporting the opponents, for the very first time?

Even if we were to say Kusosa made a monumental blunder, with that call, can we really say that provides justification for the abandonment of such a big match and all percussions that come with all that — including insulting not only the images of the sponsors of the league, but also the very same sponsors of Bosso and DeMbare (BancABC) whose money has helped keep these two giants going in very difficult times — are worth it?

Call me whatever you want, criticise me all you can, insult me as much as you might find necessary, label me whatever you want — from a moron to a fool — but that won’t make me swallow your argument, if you believe that call by Kusosa should trigger the kind of hysterical backlash that should force the abandonment of such a big game.

OF COURSE, IN THIS GAME, THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR FAIRNESS

There is feeling, among some within the Bosso institution, that they are football’s version of Donald Trump and the whole establishment — from ZIFA, the PSL leadership, the referees, the assistant referees to the mainstream media — is ganged up against them.

And, these guys, also believe that this whole establishment is set up to help their biggest rivals Dynamos and they will tell you that this cartel has used every means possible to ensure their progress is derailed while the Glamour Boys’ cause is enhanced.

Some of the militant ones have even dared to accuse me of being part of this cartel, hitting me with volleys of tribal venom in which they accuse me of being a Shona and DeMbare sympathiser even though I have never hidden my proud heritage as a child of the old Zululand — an off-shoot of those waves of people who fled King Shaka with my forefathers’ immigration to the Chipata area of Zambia having been sparked by their loss in the Battle of Umhlatwe River near Nkandla and, like my late brother Willard Mashinkila-Khumalo, a proud Zimbabwean.

This week, amid all this raging controversy, some of them questioned why Norman Matemera kept a game, which Bosso were leading 1-0 at Rufaro in 2013, going on and on — way beyond the four minutes of time added on which had been prescribed — only to end the contest in the 96th minute after Partson Jaure had scored an equaliser.

Others also questioned why DeMbare were given a helping hand by assistant referee Bongani Gadzikwa, who disallowed a legitimate goal by Knox Mtizwa at Rufaro in 2015, which would have given their club a point they richly deserved in a game they lost 2-3, and that Gadzikwa was subsequently suspended, for making that poor call, provides justification to their belief that the playing field isn’t level.

Of course, I told them I totally agree with some of their concerns and that, in this game, there is no substitute for fairness and my learned lawyer colleagues will say the foundation of fairness is justice not only being done, but having been seen to be done.

But, crucially, I also told them it won’t help our football, in its quest to move forward, if they keep feeling that all the time they are the victims because the reality is that they are not and it would be important for them to break the shell of denial that makes them embrace the belief they are prisoners to a hostile system that will always ensure that their club’s football dreams are destroyed by this cartel.

That the same way they believe there is a conspiracy against Bosso from someone like Kusosa, which might certainly not be true, is the same way they should also accept that referee Bekezela Makeka wasn’t probably driven by a quest to help their team’s cause in the 2013 championship race when he added 16 minutes of time added on at Barbourfields, against a nine-man Triangle, and Bosso scored the winning goal a minute before the expiry of those astonishing 16 minutes of time added on.

And they should also accept that the same Makeka wasn’t probably also driven by the quest to give them an unfair advantage, three months earlier at the same stadium, when he left his seat, as the match official, and stormed onto the pitch to advise referee Philani Ncube to reverse his decision, to award a 10-man CAPS United a penalty.

To accept that, even though the CAPS United players protested furiously against the reversal of that penalty call, leading to a considerable stoppage of the game, the fact that they eventually continued with play — for the sake of the game — is what should always happen rather than force a match’s abandonment.

I GUESS, OF COURSE, THERE WILL ALWAYS BE TWO SIDES TO EVERY COIN

And, as I watched the raging debate at home, including in our media, sparked by the events at Barbourfields last Sunday, I ended up telling myself that, maybe, the best way to accept all this is that there will always be two sides to every coin and even in the United States right now they are struggling to find common ground on how to cover the political developments unfolding there.

I have noticed that while CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Time magazine’s coverage of Donald Trump has tended to be sharply critical of the President, the right-leaning Fox News has chosen to be complimentary of him and were the first to suggest the other media organisations were leading “a political witch hunt” against the President.

Of course, I’m not a political authority, never was and never will be, finding very little fascination with a field where — unlike mine in the green fields of sport which Pele called beautiful — the winners and losers never tend to shake hands after their battles and it’s always them and us and nothing in between.

However, after my blog on the spirituality of the number seven — centred on Prophet Walter Magaya’s remarks the other week that as humans we need to concede there are some things whose occurrences we might never comprehend despite God blessing us with more intelligence than all the other animals — I was shocked to receive incredible feedback from all over the world.

And, as I watch all the drama unfolding in American politics — with some even daring to suggest they are now seeing some similarities to the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon in 1974 — I found it interesting that Trump, just like Nixon before him, has chosen to take a trip to the Middle East as was the case back then with Nixon.

How do we possibly explain that back in ‘74, Nixon — then reeling from Watergate — became the first American President to visit Saudi Arabia at a time of high political drama in the United States and Trump’s first port of call of his first foreign Presidential visit — amid all the political upheaval drama in the States right now — has to be Saudi Arabia?

Or, how do we explain this about two former American Presidents — Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy — who were both assassinated in office about 100 years apart?

Both Lincoln and Kennedy were elected to the House of Representatives in a year that ends in 46, with the former in 1846 and the latter in 1946.

Both were elected to the US Presidency in years that end with ‘60 — Lincoln in 1860 and Kennedy in 1960 and they beat the incumbent Vice Presidents with Lincoln defeating John C. Breckinridge and Kennedy defeating Nixon.

Both were succeeded by men whose surname was Johnson with Andrew Johnson taking over from Lincoln as President and Lyndon B. Johnson replacing Kennedy as President.

Both men suffered from genetic diseases with Lincoln having battled Marfan’s Syndrome while Kennedy had Addison’s disease.

Both were shot on a Friday, in the head, with Lincoln being shot on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, while Kennedy was shot on Friday November 22, 1963, sitting beside their wives, and their surnames had the identical number of letters (seven for Lincoln and seven for Kennedy).

The number of letters of the names of the assassins who shot the two Presidents — John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald — was also identical (15).

Both Lincoln and Kennedy were passionate about civil rights with Lincoln opposed to slavery while Kennedy helped the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Both Lincoln and Kennedy lost their third kids while still in White House with Lincoln’s son, 11-year-old William, succumbing to typhoid while Kennedy’s two-day-old boy Patrick Bouvier died just after birth from hyaline membrane disease.

President Lincoln was shot by Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC while Kennedy was shot by Oswald in Dallas while riding in a Lincoln Presidential open-top Presidential car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company.

After shooting Lincoln, Booth escaped from the theatre, where he worked as an actor, to hide in a warehouse while after shooting Kennedy, Oswald escaped from a warehouse, where he worked, and escaped into a theatre.

Incredibly, both assassins died in the same month as their Presidential victims with Booth dying in April, just like President Lincoln, while Oswald died in November, just like President Kennedy and, crucially, the day of the death of the two assassins was the same as their age with Booth dying on April 26, when he was 26, while Oswald died on November 24, when he was 24)

President Lincoln had a bodyguard named William (William H. Crook) while President Kennedy had a bodyguard called William (William Greer) with both bodyguards dying five months after their 75th birthdays.

Dr Charles Leale was the first surgeon who attended to President Lincoln after he was shot while Dr Charles Crenshaw was among the surgeons who attended to President Kennedy after he was shot and both Presidents died in a settlement with identical initials (PH) with Lincoln dying at Petersen House in Washington DC and Kennedy dying at Parkland Hospital in Dallas.

Apparently, Lincoln’s wife Mary Todd said the President had, for three consecutive nights before his killing, told her of a nightmare in which he dreamt of being assassinated and, after she was told he was dead, she said, “His dream was prophetic.”

Some things, maybe, are just meant to be.

But, for those who believe we are the worst, when it comes to all these controversies over match officiating, including some who choose to see a dosage of politics where there might be none, please just read a very informative piece by Spanish reporter Luis Mascaro, in the Sport newspaper, published in March this year in which he lists 32 refereeing decisions which have gone in favour of Real Madrid on both their domestic and continental front this season alone.

Of course, Madrid could win the Spanish championship again this weekend and become the first team to defend the UEFA Champions League but, for me, what has caught my attention, is that none of those 32 matches was abandoned.

And that is what matters.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

Come on United!!!!!!!!!!!

Rashfoooord!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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