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I have never supported cyber-bullying. However, I waived my stand over a week ago when Gor Mahia supporters rained misery on a Malian national by the name Boubou Traore online.
Now, one might wonder what business Gor fans had raising hell for a national of a country that does not even share a border with Kenya.
This is why. Over a week ago, Gor Mahia locked horns with Algerian team NA Hussein Dey in a Caf Confederation Cup Group ‘D’ match and Trarore happened to be the referee of the day.
Rather he was in charge of the farce that passed for football a match. Apart from his biased officiating Traore disallowed a clear Shafique Batambuze’s header which could have earned Gor Mahia a draw to keep them at the helm of the group.
For instance, Traore yellow carded Nicholas Kipkirui, Javques Tuyisenge and Samwel Onyango.
A crazy decision was when he served the same treatment to Francis Mustapha at half time on the reserve bench for complaining to the first assistant referee Baba Yombolba.
Then some tech savvy Gor supporters went online and met with the guy virtually. If the comments could be turned into physical weapons, Traore would have ended up in the ICU, at the very least.
His warped sense of refereeing pushed the pressure on Gor Mahia a notch higher as we faced Egyptian giants Zamalek in Alexandria last night. You must be knowing the results as you read this, but I still blame that Traore.
I am happy that FKF Secretary General Robert Muthomi has written a protest note to Caf seeking clarification both on Traore’s performance and the cancellation of the Batambuze goal.
“We would like to single out the performance of the Centre Referee, Mr Boubou Traore.
The specific criticism of his performance is during the 58th minute where he disallowed a goal scored by the visitors from a corner kick.
“From the video obtained from Caf on the match highlights, it is evident that there was no contact/infringement from the attacking players on the goalkeeper neither was there an offside call it being a corner kick and as such, we would like to seek clarification from Caf as to why the goal was disallowed.
“We hope very much that you will carefully consider the reports of the Caf Referee Assessor for the match and look at the television recording of the match to form a view about the acceptability of Mr Traore’s performance, and of his suitability to referee future matches,” Muthomi was quoted in the local press.
While I thank Muthomi for his response, past dealings with the North African teams show that they are con men of the first order.
I have never trusted them since that Friday evening in early 1984 when I listened as Leonard Mambo Mbotela broadcasted on radio live from Cairo as another North African team Zamalek openly stole a match from Gor Mahia.
Thanks to the intervention of Gor officials, last night’s match was to get referees from different countries to handle the Zamalek match. Hope reason — and good football — prevailed.
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