Zambia's referee export to the world
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| Janny Sikazwe |
By VICTOR KALALANDA, August 18, 2018*
In 2010, referee Janny sikazwe caused a furore in Konkola stadium after flashing two red cards.
Irate fans nearly descended on him for a very good beating.
Time
has since passed but the incident is still fresh in his mind, as if written on brass, because it is by a whisker he dodged death that day.
The
violence followed a tightly contested encounter that saw Konkola Blades losing
to Nchanga Rangers, prompting incensed fans of the former to virtually take the law into their own hands.
Sikazwe
can no longer recall the game’s exact scoreline but he describes the horror it brought
him as the “worst of my career,” becoming an integral part of the larger story
of the highflying top FIFA referee.
The
two red cards he had meted out on erring Konkola players in the said game would
have tragically ended his life but he discloses that lack of compromise has
stood him in good stead.
“We’ve
got good referees but FIFA needs top referees. And how we are going to
differentiate between good and top referees it is where difficult situations
are concerned. When we’ve a difficult situation and you make the correct
decision, then you will be considered as a top referee,” Sikazwe states.
For
him, as such, it is fait accompli
when he flashes his cards, points at the penalty spot or anywhere else: never
does he shy away from the toughest of decisions.
He
is a soft-spoken man with a relatively hefty CV at the age of 39, a man of an
erect figure and charming looks, born to Winford and Mary Sikazwe.
Referee blood runs through his family considering that his father, who has since died, was
a local referee himself and went on to introduce his son to the career he has
now mastered.
Sikazwe
attained his qualification as a local referee in 1999 and therefrom started
nurturing an upward trajectory which saw FAZ award him in 2005 as the best
referee in the FAZ Super Division League.
Yet
again after the 2006 League season, the Association recognised him as the best
match official of the year.
He
wooed, 2 years later, the attention of FIFA: “In 2007 that’s when I became a
FIFA referee and then I had the chance to go for COSAFA U20 in South Africa.”
Following
the COSAFA stint in 2008, the red carpet of destiny started to roll out itself
as two years later the Kapiri Mposhi resident got the opportunity to officiate
at the All Africa Games in Mozambique under CAF.
Subsequently,
in 2012, Sikazwe took his hitherto best bite at the cherry when he was
appointed by CAF as one of the match officials at the Gabon/Equatorial Guinea
AFCON, which the Chipolopolo Boys won.
His
officiating credentials, from 2012 onwards, started getting all the more
augmented and recognised, as underscored by CAFs policy to make use of his
services in past AFCONs.
Today
without exaggeration, he is Zambia’s best referee bar none, with the last four
AFCONs engraved on his profile. His prominence, besides, is illustrated by his recent
awards as FAZ’s best referee in 2015 and later on in 2017.
He’s
the arrow that has travelled the farthest, adding pride to services of Zambia’s
pioneer referees like Richard Kapansa, Peter Chelelwa, Bennett Simfukwe,
Dickson Kombe and Arthur Davies (European), all chronicled in late sportswriter
Ridgeway Liwena’s book The Zambian Soccer
Scene. Kapansa was the first black man to chair what is called today as the
Referee’s Association of Zambia (RAZ).
Incidentally,
Sikazwe had landed nomination for last year’s CAF best referee award which,
unfortunately, was cancelled.
Aside
from his senior engagements with FAZ and CAF, the hubby who has three children
with Diana Kalandala has won the coveted confidence of FIFA insofar as he has
presided over mammoth games like at the U17 World Cup in 2015 and the U20 World
Cup in 2017.
His
fame, in fact, grew to iconic proportions back in 2016 when he not only
refereed over the opening match of the Japan FIFA Club World Cup, but also officiated
in the tournament’s mouth-watering but final clash between Real Madrid and
Kashima Antlers.
Having
reached the quarter finals as fourth official at the just-ended World Cup in
Russia, and being Zambia’s first referee to participate in the competition, Sikazwe
has rubbed shoulders with the finest whistlers on the planet of football, and
walked in the most glorious autumn of his career.
Through
persistence of effort, he has sampled the aura of elite refereeing, ensuring
that even the world’s best footballers are protected or disciplined on the
pitch.
At
the last World Cup he became the full embodiment of Zambia’s sporting
aspirations, explaining why his fellow compatriots feel that their Chipolopolo
Boys, in effect, participated in the competition. It’s like the claim that
Africans won the World Cup because the France squad was predominantly of black
race.
“As
I watched Jan officiate the game between Belgium and Panama, it was like watching
Zambia. You could feel that Zambia was there at the World Cup,” remarks Aswell
Shonga, a football enthusiast.
In
the same vein, FAZ supremo Andrew Kamanga has said of Sikazwe that “[FAZ is] proud
of [his] landmark achievement,” with President Edgar Lungu also stating that Zambia’s
most successful referee is “doing a great job . . . we wish him good things to
come.”
Intriguingly,
moreover, it is while serving as referee that the United Church of Zambia (UCZ)
devotee has also fulfilled his responsibilities as an educational administrator
under the Ministry of General Education.
As
for him, pursuing such an unpopular career as refereeing and moulding a household
name from its clay is an achievement of purely religious origin.
“Whatever
I have achieved is because of God, and I stand on Psalm 125 verses 1 and 2,” he
announces.
Refereeing
has taken him to its picturesque mountaintops as well as dreadful valleys,
where he was almost skinned alive on the pitch by unruly spectators.
He
explains his job thus: “FAZ prepares some exams and when you qualify as their
referee, the grading comes with your performance. If you’re performing well,
CAF and FIFA will identify you and you’ll be participating in their big
competitions.”
He
states that a referee who will go places must boast of a strong personality and
be able to interpret the laws of football when awarding red cards or penalties,
for instance.
“Referees
should have courage even in these local games because when they are [televised]
on Super Sport, CAF and FIFA [referee] instructors watch and people will say we
have seen a referee in Zambia,” he says.
In
future, the Nkrumah University alumnus is “looking forward to becoming a CAF
and FIFA instructor because,” he says, “I need to develop referees.”
Now
at home in Kapiri Mposhi, as he looks back on the multitudes that swamped him
upon arrival from Russia at the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport, the top
FIFA referee finds Zambians as deeply loving, saying: “I only have these words
for them: thank you!”
Original copy was first published in the Zambia Daily Mail on the stated date*
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