ZIMSPHERE
HARARE – Zimbabwe's stand-in captain, Marshall Munetsi, voiced strong criticism of the referees following the Warriors' 3-1 defeat to Kenya in the Four-Nation Tournament in Malawi on Tuesday, March 26.
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| Image: Soccer24 |
His feelings were expressed following the issuance of two red cards to Teenage Hadebe and coach Norman Mapeza.
Kenya also concluded the game with only 10 players due to a red card.
Hadebe was dismissed to the locker room in the 57th minute after being shown a second yellow card, while Mapeza was banished to the stands due to his dissent.
Munetsi, in his post-match comments, underscored the detrimental impact of poor refereeing on players' commitment.
He said some of the referee's decisions were 'unfair' and could "tarnish the image of African football".
"We could have done better, we have things to learn. Unfortunately there were incidents that happened in the field of play with the referees.
"Such incidents tarnish our image as a continent, we need to change and move forward."
He advocated for the introduction of VAR technology to rectify refereeing errors, stating:
"I think some of the decisions by the referee were not good so I think you guys [journalists] should be interviewing these referees.
"I think we have to be fair in Africa maybe bringing VAR to check these things, we are professionals and where we play there’s fairness not what we do in Africa so this affects our commitment."
Zimbabwe concluded the invitational mini-tournament in second place, having won one match against Zambia on penalties and lost the other to Kenya.
The tournament offered the Warriors valuable match experience as they faced off against formidable teams such as Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia ahead of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers resuming in June this year.
And obviously, this was a window to draw some lessons for the team and identify areas of improvement so as to refine their strategies.
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