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Mukudzei Chingwere Sports Reporter
PREMIERSHIP football referees are back in the spotlight following growing voices of concern in the way their poor decisions have influenced some league matches.  The ZIFA Referees’ Committee said they are worried about the trend but will deal with the rot.

Referees’ association boss Bryton Malandule said they have been ruthless in punishing the officials who have been caught on the wrong side.

“You know, when we are talking about referees the idea is not just to crack the whip, we need to groom these guys but we also punish them if we feel they have done something that has influenced the result.

“This week we received a complaint from TelOne citing some calls from the referees and what I can tell you is that we act on all these complaints, we have punished our members on numerous occasions without necessarily telling the press.

“This season alone we have demoted another referee to Division One after we saw that they are not fit for the Premier League.
“Some referees have been suspended for three games each, for wrong decisions, like there is an incident in which a referee gave a goal and allowed it to stand after adjudging that it had crossed the line when it did not,” said Malandule.

The referees’ association’s boss said they are also attending certain games randomly to assess the performance of their members.

He said today he will attend the high-profile game pitting defending champions FC Platinum and Dynamos at Mandava.
“We are worried about the credibility of our game and at times we go on to attend some of these games unannounced to keep our members in check.

“(But) for the record I want to make it very clear that we appoint very competent officials, we have a panel responsible for that and they are doing a very good job.

“But if teams feel hard done they should come to us and we will take action if there is any wrong doing,” said Malandule.