Malawi’s FCB Nyasa Big Bullets will report the match officials of their 2024-25 CAF Champions League second preliminary round match against Red Arrows on Saturday to CAF, claiming they favoured the Zambian champions.
Bullets CEO Albert Chigoga stated that the officials’ decisions raised questions, and he believes CAF will address them.
Libyan center referee Elmabrouk Muhamad officiated the match, assisted by Tunisians Wael Hannachi and Ahmed Dhouioui. Nidhal Ben Ltaief, also from Tunisia, served as the fourth official, while Erastus Shilunga, the match commissioner, came from Namibia.
The Airmen defeated the Malawians 2-0 to secure a 3-2 aggregate victory, thanks to Saddam Yusuf Phiri’s penalty kick in the 65th minute and Paul Katema sealed the victory five minutes to full time.
The Malawi champions, however, think the penalty awarded to Red Arrows was not genuine.
“We had our team that managed to get footage; when you look at them, it was clear there was no contact for the referee to award Arrows a penalty.
“Despite the penalty issue, we feel that the referee failed to handle the game and his decisions were questionable. We feel we have a genuine case to take it to CAF,” said Chigoga.
Bullets want Muhamad and co. punished by CAF
Asked if he thinks the game might be replayed, Chigoga said he doesn’t think so but still, they want justice to be done to the officiating team.
“The officiating team should be questioned for what they did. We have seen that before anyway, so we need to take the matter to CAF and they will be punished because from the first whistle, those referees failed to manage the game,” he said.
Meanwhile, Red Arrows will now face TP Mazembe in the second preliminary round with qualification to the group stage up for grabs.
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