WITH this season's NBC Premier League having witnessed several goals that were disallowed due to what has been termed as controversial decisions by match officials, some soccer stakeholders in Tanzania have come up with advice on solving the issue.

The stakeholders have pointed out that the said controversy not only angers players but also discourages clubs' leaders and fans, who, in turn, lose trust in the match officials.

Othman Kazi, a famous retired soccer referee who is of late hosting a sports analysis program on a local television station, has told the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) that he has a solution for the situation. 

The retired referee stated so recently after he had received many complaints about refereeing from his program's viewers.

He said many mistakes happen during matches given many referees and their assistants do not see every action happening on and off the pitch.

He pointed out that, for that matter, the Tanzania soccer governing body should come up with a program for assessing match officials while they are implementing their duties.

According to Kazi, such an approach will at least minimize complaints aimed at the match officials.

"Many people claim that our soccer referees are underperforming, whereas others are calling on TFF to regularly organize seminars to deal with repeated mistakes (by match officials)," he noted.

The retired referee revealed: "That is not a solution, instead, (TFF) should put an assessor for every match to closely monitor (match officials) performances while on the pitch and rate them at the end of the tie, this would be helpful."

He said that rule number 10 of soccer regulations stipulates how a goal scored may either be accepted or disallowed.

"A goal might be disallowed if a player violates that rule, he might have found the back of the net while he was either in an offside position or pulling an opponent. In three games we have analyzed, referees had mistakenly disallowed the goals," the retired referee added. 

Some of this season's NBC Premier League matches that had goals that were disallowed include the one pitting Simba SC against Tabora United that was played at Azam Complex Stadium, Dar es Salaam.

Tabora United's offensive midfielder Najim Mussa scored what would have been an equalizer via a spectacular long-range strike, as the football hit Simba SC's crossbar, bounced over the goal line, and went back into play.

The action turned out to be quite fast and left the referee and his first assistant puzzled. The match officials eventually disallowed the goal despite having been reminded by Tabora United officials that the ball had crossed the goal line. Simba SC had, at the time, been leading 1-0.

The tie between Yanga and Kagera Sugar, which as well took place at Azam Complex Stadium, was another match, which had a goal controversially disallowed.

The match's referee disallowed the goal netted by Yanga's Ivorian attacker Joseph Guede, claiming he was offside before netting the goal. Television replays though revealed the muscular attacker was onside.