Football match ends in bloodshed as referee kills player

A referee is facing murder charges after football players allegedly forced him to kill a member of the opposing team in southern Malawi, police said Friday.

The referee was overseeing a football match between two local teams, Billiat FC and Chilengo FC, in the town of Thyolo on Wednesday, when Chilengo FC players refused to accept the referee’s decision to invalidate a goal, district police spokesman Benjamin Foster told dpa.

In the ensuing scuffle, the referee fled to a nearby house, which the players lit to smoke him out, according to Foster.

When the referee ran out of the burning building, the players forced him to smack a Billiat FC player repeatedly with a stick, the spokesman said.

The player later died of his injuries in hospital, added Foster.

“The referee turned himself over … He is facing murder charges,” he said.

- DPA/NAN