The dust has barely settled on the 27th week of the league, and the disciplinary committee is already handing out some serious penalties. It’s been a busy few days for the officials at Misryoum, who have been sifting through reports of unsportsmanlike conduct, stadium property damage, and the usual collection of yellow card accumulations that tend to thin out squad rosters at the worst possible times.
Take the case of Abdullatif Bamba from Mekelle 70 Enderta. He’s been hit with a three-game ban and a 3,000 birr fine after being sent off in the 88th minute against Welwalo Adigrat University for using offensive language toward the referee. It’s a costly outburst, and honestly, the team will feel that absence on the pitch. Similarly, Gibi Jobe of the Ethiopia Commercial Bank team is facing a double whammy; he’s out for one game for a handball that denied a clear goal-scoring opportunity, plus an additional three-game suspension and another 3,000 birr fine for making offensive hand gestures at the crowd on his way off the field. A rough day at the office, indeed.
There is a smell of wet paint and freshly broken plastic in the air when looking at the stadium reports. Fans were rowdy, to put it mildly. Saint George, Arba Minch City, and Ethiopia Coffee all have to cover repair costs for hundreds of seats broken during their matches. Specifically, 412 seats in the ‘Katanga’ section—that’s a lot of chairs to fix—were damaged by Saint George supporters.
Then there’s the list of players suspended for accumulating five yellow cards. It reads like a roll call of the league’s most persistent offenders: Tesfaye Tamrat, Moyes Pawati, Getaneh Kebede, Assegahegn Petros, Bereket Wolde, Abenezer Hizkiel, Sintayehu Weleche, and Wubishet Kifle. They are all looking at one-game bans and 1,500 birr fines.
Actually, it wasn’t just the players. Sidama Bunna got hit with a 25,000 birr fine because their match against Ethiopia Commercial Bank started 21 minutes late. That’s a steep price for a delay—or maybe the committee is just really tightening the screws on punctuality lately.
Anyway, the Misryoum committee also noted that from the 28th week onwards, if a game is interrupted, it must be replayed the very next day unless something truly unavoidable happens. It sounds like they are trying to keep the schedule tight, though goodness knows how the teams will manage the logistics of that on such short notice. It is what it is, I suppose.