By Ellina Mhlanga
THE semi-final battle of the Copa Coca-Cola football tournament between Prince Edward and Pamushana was abandoned yesterday over a disputed goal towards the end of the match at Mandava.
Most of the schools in the boys section had their players vetted on Thursday and some were left with less than 11 players.Prince Edward, who were left with 10 players after vetting, took the lead a few minutes after the break through Norest Mazemo.
However, Pamushana of Masvingo equalised a minute from full time when two Prince Edward players were lying injured, forcing the medical team to storm the pitch.
The assistant referee had raised his flag and this did not go down well with the Prince Edward technical staff who protested against the decision by the referee to award the goal.
The match had to be abandoned after it was stopped for over 30 minutes before the match officials walked off the pitch and were expected to submit their report by last night.
However, there were indications that Prince Edward are likely to be disqualified.
“From the word go, they refused to allow us to use the boys that went to Cossasa when they were primary school kids two years ago,’’ he said.
“They say they use physical vetting, but they travelled with the same boys to Lesotho. They travelled with the same boys to Botswana for Naph Cossasa Games. But here they were vetted using physical vetting and no-one even bothered to look at the documents, we had all the documents, we had everything. We played with 10 men.’’
His counterpart Bernard Matenga said they are will wait for the match officials’ decision.“Both the referee and assistant confirmed the goal, so it was just the other team was trying to say the flag was up,’’ he said.
“I don’t know how they will deal with that one, but I think it’s clear under the laws of the game that even if the assistant raised his flag, the referee can override that and tell him to put it down looking at various considerations.’’
The other semi-final match saw Guinea Fowl of Midlands progressing to the final when they defeated Waddilove from Mashonaland East 3-0.
In the girls section, Nyamauru from Manicaland Province advanced to the final when they beat Mwami from Mashonaland West 2-1. They will take on Mpopoma from Bulawayo, who dismissed Chenhuta 3-1 on penalties after the match ended 0-0 in regulation time.
This year will see new champions being crowned in both the boys and girls section after Rusununguko, who were the defending champions, lost in the group stages against Pamushana and Pfupajena in Group D.
The group had to be decided on penalties after all the matches ended in draws.
They all drew 1-1 in their matches.
Chidyamakono’s dominance in the girls section came to an end when they were dismissed 1-0 in Group C by Gweshe.
They then drew 0-0 against Mwami, who went on to beat Gweshe 1-0 to book their place in the quarter-finals. The Herald.
