Terengganu and Kelantan unhappy with referee

To most of the sold-out crowd at Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah Stadium in Kuala Terengganu on Monday, it was referee Mohd Nafeez Abdul Wahab who was the 'man of the match'.

 

After all, he was the one who red-carded three Kelantan and two Terengganu players, in addition to brandishing 10 yellow cards, five to each side, in the Malaysia Cup first-leg quarter-final between Terengganu and Kelantan.

Not many in the crowd knew his name then but most of the supporters were more than willing to shout profanities at him all throughout the hot-tempered match.

They did not seem to have run out of expletives even after he blew the final whistle and the 32-year-old referee had to be escorted off the field by security personnel.

 

Terengganu Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said, who was one of the spectators, said the referee failed miserably at his job of handling the explosive east coast derby.

"This was a high profile match with a long history of animosity between the two rivals and the FA of Malaysia should have appointed a better referee than this one," said Ahmad after the match.

"He was not consistent at all when finding faults with players from either team and he seemed bent on trying to compensate the other team after dishing out punishment to one team."

Ahmad said the referee must have thought it was his job to protect certain big name players from being booked.

"I am talking strictly as a fan and former football player, and in my opinion, Kelantan striker Norshahrul Idlan Talaha deserved to be cautioned in the first half.

"What was needed here tonight was a referee with enough experience handling difficult matches. Hopefully, there will not be a repeat of this in the return leg on Friday," he added.

What Ahmad did not know was that Mohd Nafeez has been officiating international matches since 2008 and is one of the country's top referees.

Both Terengganu coach Irfan Bakti and his Kelantan counterpart M. Karathu refused to comment on the performance of the match officials.

Irfan said Ismail Faruqi Ashaari and Zubir Azmi, who were red-carded for second yellow card offenses, will be suspended for one match and will not be available for the return-leg in Kota Baru.

Karathu said his key defender Daudsu Jamaluddin will have to serve a two-match suspension after receiving a straight red card for an illegal tackle on Terengganu's Ashaari Shamsuddin in the 33rd minute.

"Mohd Shakir Shaari and Mohd Aziz Ismail will be banned for one match as they are two yellow-card offenders but that is enough to make it difficult for us to overturn the first-leg result although we believe that all is not over just yet," said Karathu.

"The sad part is, until tonight, none of players had ever received a red card in all competitions this season. Now we have got three red cards in just one match."

Meanwhile, FAM vice president and local competition committee chairman Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin said he will wait for the match report before making any comment.

FAM deputy president Tan Sri Annuar Musa, who was also at the stadium, said anyone who was not satisfied with any aspect of the match should lodge a complaint with the association.