The majority of the club owners of teams participating in the inaugural Super League Soccer Tournament have shown their displeasure over the standard of refereeing in the matches concluded so far, and are to write to the governing body to seek their intervention to resolve this issue.
After the commencement of this semi-professional football league with the participation of ten top teams, most of the clubs are not happy over certain decisions taken by the local football referees, which they say had done immense damage to their performance and outcome of matches.
“We are very disappointed over the standard of refereeing so far. Most of the club owners are unhappy the way our local referees handled the games, which at times has changed the complexion of the matches. We have to find a quick remedy to overcome this situation, failing which we will have to face serious repercussions,” said Rohitha Fernando, the owner of New Young SC from Wennappuwa, speaking to the media in a post-match press briefing last Sunday.
Rohitha, who is also Chairman of the Technical Committee, further elaborated: “All clubs at the outset of the tournament requested the Football Federation to seek the assistance of few overseas referees in our region, like Japan, who are capable of supporting us, to mix with our local lads to gain the all-important exposure, which up to now has received a negative response. Our best referees are sent for overseas assignments at a time a key tournament is in progress. As all are aware, the clubs have pumped in huge amounts which run up to several millions to focus on this tournament apart from the grant of Rs.three million given by the Football Federation, at a time when there are no sponsors due to the pandemic. We expect to play competitive soccer and let the team who performs best win the game. But our hopes are shattered with the present standard of refereeing which needs to be rectified sooner than later, if not the clubs will have to take a unanimous decision to pull out from this tournament,” concluded Rohitha.
Daily News contacted A.G.C. Deshapriya, the Chairman of the Referees’ Committee, for his comments, and he responded: “We know there had been lapses from some of the referees, but it is not severe as these clubs complain. We take up the complaints made by the clubs and refer them with video visuals along with these referees. We alert them to be cautious in their future assignments to minimize the mistakes.”
“We have segregated a pool of 40 referees for this event and had a workshop before the commencement of the tournament. As humans, they tend to make mistakes, which however is not an excuse. We are making all endeavours to improve the standard while the tournament progresses. The playing team should know to execute a proper plan to win their respective games, based on the strengths and weaknesses of their opponent,” concluded Deshapriya.
0 comments:
Post a Comment