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Sikhumbuzo Moyo in Brazzaville, Congo
FC Platinum who secured a draw under hostile conditions, will today lodge an official complaint with Caf against Togolese referee Nokou Ntale who handled their Champions League match against AS Otoho on Sunday.

Coach Norman Mapeza’s gallant warriors put up a top drawer performance at the Stade Marien Ngouab, coming from a goal down to level matters in the early stages of the second half in a match they were heavily undone by the embarrassing officiating of Ntale.

Despite awarding an incredible 16 free kicks in the first 20 minutes to Otoho, Ntale denied the Zimbabwean champions a clear penalty when Gift Mbweti was hacked down inside the box while going for the kill.

The Congolese also scored after two FC Platinum players, Gift Bello and goalkeeper Petros Mhari had been impeded.

“The result was okay for us of course but we will be making an official complaint to Caf through our national association Zifa because the match was not handled properly by those guys from Togo. It’s bad for football and certainly does not do good to African football,” said FC Platinum general manager Joseph Mususa, who won numerous awards during his time as a referee.

When it became clear that the visitors were facing difficulty due to Ntale’s biased officiating, Mususa penned an official letter of complaint indicating that they were playing under protest, as per the rules and regulations of the tournament.

“Our captain Mhari was supposed to hand the letter to the referee, but he was sitting on a yellow card at the time of our writing the letter meaning he could have gotten another yellow card and expelled from the match. When the game ended, we tried to hand over the letter to the referee, who strangely refused to accept it. So basically we have a cocktail of complaints against the referee,” said Mususa.

There was also a tense finish to the duel as the Congolese sought to find a last minute winner as they did against Angolan giants Agosto.

Five minutes of injury time were added as the barrage of attacks from the home side continued and when the five minutes were up, the match went on for another six minutes.

The two sides clash in the return leg at Mandava Stadium on Saturday with the winner going through to the group stages of the tournament.

Meanwhile, FC Platinum touched down at the Robert Mugabe International Airport this morning after leaving Brazzaville last night.