Controversial referees in Express vs Vipers game banned

The Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) has banned the four match officials who officiated the game between Express FC and Vipers at Wankulukuku on Wednesday over foul play, the Nile Post has learnt.

 Both fans and players for Express FC   were on Wednesday left bemused  and  cursing the centre referee, Ronald Kirangwa for allowing Vipers SC’s late minute equaliser that they said was scored from an offside position.

The equaliser sent mixed reactions among football supporters with many accusing the match officials of poor officiating.

In a statement released on Thursday, FUFA announced that upon advice from the Referees Disciplinary Panel and the FUFA Referees Standing Committee, they had decided to take a position of banning all the officials for a specified period of time.

 “The second Assistant Referee Mr. Kakembo Samuel is banned from performing refereeing services of all FUFA organised and sanctioned Competitions for a period of 5 years whereas the Centre Referee Mr. Kirangwa Ronald is banned from performing refereeing services of all FUFA organised and sanctioned Competitions for a period of 3 years,” read the statement by FUFA in part.

“The first Assistant Referee Ms. Nantabo Lydia Wanyama is banned from performing refereeing services of all FUFA organised and sanctioned Competitions for a period of 60 days.”

http://nilepost.co.ug/2018/11/08/vipers-score-late-in-contested-equalizer-to-share-spoils-with-express/

According to the statement, the three match officials including the centre referee, his first and second assistants have been forwarded to the FUFA committee for match integrity for further investigation.

“The decisions take immediate effect.”

These officials were on Wednesday saved by anti -riot police that had to fire teargas to disperse the angry Express fans who wanted to lynch them for officiating the game poorly .

Kirangwa is not new to controversy  after being banned from the Masaza and Bika  football tournament for Buganda kingdom last year.

He was in charge of the abandoned game between Mmamba Ggabunga and Nseenene in which he awarded two red cards to the latter's players in a space of less than 4 minutes.

He was in the process punched by officials from Nseenene before fans joined in the fight.

The ban comes at a time when a number of people are complaining over refereeing decisions in the StarTimes Uganda Premier League that have cost a number of teams dearly.

On October 16,  Brian  Nsubuga ,the centre referee in a game where BUL beat Paidha Black Angels at the Njeru Technical Centre, cancelled what the fans claimed was a genuine goal for the visiting team scored by Andrew Kidega  saying the ball had passed through a hole in the  side net before being returned to the goal.

When tasked to show the alleged hole, he could not show it but maintained the his stance to cancel the goal.

The  decision  by the centre referee didn't go down well with Paidha's supporters who hurled bottles on to the pitch forcing the game to stop for over 10 minutes and it took the intervention of police for it to resume.

The visitors' players had also threatened to walk out of the pitch over the decision.