Fathi apologizes to match officials following wrong ‘offside’ outburst
By the ZamFoot Crew | May 20, 2021
NAPSA Stars head coach Mohamed Fathi has offered an apology to the match officials who were in charge of their rescheduled game against Nkana on Wednesday.
Fathi was left fuming after he thought Nkana’s equalizing goal from Duke Abuya was scored from an offside position but after watching a repeat of the match Fathi now believes the referees made the right call.
Like I said that offside goal frustrated the team and a lot of decisions intimidated the team first half and second half we lost our concentration and it cost us a lot of goals- Fathi said immediately after the game
Milton Mweemba was the center referee at Nkana Stadium on Wednesday afternoon with Thomas Kaela as his first assistant and Mercy Zulu as the second assistant.
“I would love to apologize for the misunderstanding about the offside goal, the one we argued about yesterday in the game between Nkana and NAPSA Stars, I saw it after the game, Our left-back was covering the Nkana player hence it was a genuine goal, The assistant referee made the right call. So this why I apologize for any emotions that happened during the game and after the game with the match officials,” said a remorseful Fathi.
“At the end of the day, it’s football, we know the right thing, this is why VAR is very important for our game because you know what is going on immediately that time but yesterday, I did not have any methods to watch the goal, I watched it after the game, and I understand what happened, This is why am saying for any inconvenience that happened between me and the match commissioner and referees concerning that goal,” he added.
NAPSA Stars gave away a one-goal lead to lose 4-1 at the hands of struggling Nkana away in Kitwe. Jimmy Mukeya put the Pensioners in the lead before Duke Abuya leveled matters and Diamond Chikwekwe went on to put the hosts in the lead. Left-back Gilroy Chimwemwe added a third with in-form striker Alex ‘Bazo’ Ng’onga adding the cherry on top.
Meanwhile, Fathi believes NAPSA Stars can still finish in the top four despite their current position being fifteenth with 36 points from 27 games played and should they win their next three games in hand they will be in the top six places.