Beach soccer: Nkumba Select owner faces ban

Nkumba Select BSC owner/coach Isa Asiimwe is the next person in the dock, as disciplinary issues involving coaches and referees at the Pepsi Beach Soccer League soar.

Asiimwe will this week appear before the UBSA competitions committee for a hearing that is likely to see him banned for Nkumba Select's next three matches after he physically assaulted female referee Justine Nambafu among other officials.

With just three minutes to the end of the last period, Nkumba was trailing 3-0 against lowly placed Buwanika Bulls when Asiimwe appeared to be under immense pressure went physical.

He attacked the referee accusing her for failing to caution Buwanika Bulls player who had fouled Nkumba Select's Roch Somoka. The referee dismissed the coach from the bench and he refused to leave the technical area forcing the game to end prematurely.

Buwanika Bulls player Pascal Mugisha and Nkumba select keeper Joseph Yiga were involved in an argument as the beach soccer game between the two sides progressed at Lido beach Entebbe. PHOTO: Mpalanyi Ssentongo

"I will explain myself to the (competitions) committee. Why didn't the referee give the card? She should have borrowed one if she did not have. And why did she rush to send me off and yet she was not willing to listen?," Asiimwe argued.

UBSA chairman of competitions committee Anthony Tumwesigye said that Asiimwe will also be questioned for attacking the match assessor when he was told to vacate the technical area.

Many of the club officials have accused majority of the beach soccer referees at the league of committing glaring mistakes either because they are unfit or fail to interpret laws of the game rightly.

The last official UBSA punished for attacking a referee was Kayunga TC BSC chairman James Katumba for fighting a referee at the beach. MUBS coach Charles Ayeko survived questioning last month under a similar circumstances when his team lost to Talented BSC because he only launched verbal artillery against the match officials.