The disallowed first half goal netted by a Zambian striker against Nigeria has become a bone of contention in football.
The Zambia Football Association President, Andrew Kamanga, has said they will not be appealing the first-half goal that was disallowed, when they lost 1-0 to Nigeria last Saturday, in a 2018 World Cup qualifier.
Recall that Senegal successfully had their appeal against poor officiating in their game against South Africa granted by FIFA and a replay has been ordered. But Zambia has decided not to toe that part. Nigeria went on the win the match with a lone goal and became the first African country to qualify for Russia 2018 world cup.
Kamanga admits they studied all possible routes to appeal the goal, which was scored by Augustine Mulenga, but later found no substance to appeal the goal which was they claim was ruled out for offside wrongly.
According to him, Article 15.6 of the FIFA rules says decision made by the referee is final and can only be appealed if there is evidence of external influence, which wasn’t the case in the game against Nigeria.
“The rules being what they are cannot overturn the decision of the referee. The only basis is when there was external influence. So the referee maybe carpeted for making a wrong decision but the decision still stands and unfortunately that is where we stand,” he said in an interview with the press in Zambia.