Police FC coach Albert Joel Mphande has blamed match officials following his side’s misfortunes of a 1-all draw with APR over the weekend at Kigali Stadium. The Zambian tactician slammed the quartet of referees; Jean Paul Ngabonziza, Zéphanie Niyonkuru, Justin Karangwa and Samuel Uwikunda for favoritism towards his opponents, arguing that Police could have collected the three points if the match handling had been fair. Forward Dominic Antoine Ndayishimiye scored for Police in the ninth minute before APR defender Aimable Nsabimana equalized in the 72nd minute to salvage a point for the leaders. While speaking to Times Sport after the game, a visibly upset Mphande, still unbeaten since arriving at Police FC in April, said he was disappointed with how the match was officiated before noting that, “had the referees been fair, the results would have been different.” “I am very disappointed with the referees today, they can do better – they must do better. We scored two beautiful goals and one was disallowed in a bizarre manner. Also a number of false fouls were awarded to APR. Their poor officiating cost us,” Mphande said. Mphande was furious following Amini Muzerwa’s disallowed goal in the 20th minute after linesman Justin Karangwa had marked him offside. “Favoritism kills football more than anything else, today’s game is proof to that. APR was highly favored. For me, we won the game with 2-1, let’s be fair, come-on!” he added Following the draw, APR reclaimed the top spot with 51 points, level on points with second-placed AS Kigali – both from 25 leagues games. However, the former lead courtesy of a better goal difference, 27, compared to AS Kigali’s 25. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
