There was drama in the Zambian Super League on Wednesday during a midweek fixture involving Napsa Stars and Zesco United football clubs when two players were sent off after physically fighting.
Zesco United midfielder Kelvin Kambamba and Napsa Stars’ Daniel Adoko could not hold their tempers after the two had a misunderstanding in the middle of the match.
With Napsa Stars leading 2-1 in the 85th minute thanks to goals from Augustine Mulenga and Musonda Kapembwa’s spotkick, Zesco’s Kampamba seemed unhappy that Adoko was using delaying tactics and in his attempt to caution him, the Napsa player looked not to agree with his counterpart.
What followed were ugly scenes as the two almost exchanged fisticuffs had it not been for their teammates who separated them.
The exchange of words continued for 1 minute as efforts by the match official to quell the brouhaha proved futile.
The centre referee then made the right decision to red card both players who exhibited high levels of indiscipline and unsportsmanlike conduct with only five minutes of regulation time remaining to play.
No sooner had the referee sent off the two players did Kampamba go for his counterparts’ throat in what looked like an attempted chokeslam before they were separated for the second time.
Meanwhile, reacting to the incidence, Napsa stars coach Perry Mutapa defended his player’s character that he is not known for such behaviour as he has never been red-carded before while Zesco united interim coach Alfred Lupiya condemned the acts of two players.
Perry said: “I think it happens in the game but I will talk about my player, he doesn’t have an incidence of being sent off. I don’t know what happened, I didn’t see but my player doesn’t have an incidence of such nature. Ofcourse we have to see it maybe on camera but he is a clean player, so this is football and there is nothing I can say about the other player from another team.”
Lupiya on the other hand added that he will not tolerate such unsportsman behaviour from his players.
“I was just telling my players in the dressing room that don’t lose tempers, that’s not boxing or wrestling, players need to be calm.
“Such things should not happen. For me I can’t tolerate such and I will have to talk to Muba (Kampamba Mubanga) again.”he concluded.
Napsa recorded their third win of the season from eight games and moved into 5th position on the table with 12 points while Zesco who were coming from two consecutive draws in the league have dropped to 13th position with only 9 points.
