Confederation of African Football (CAF) are making headlines after Tanzanian giants Simba SC showed grievances about the former’s decision to change match officials ahead of the 2018/2019 Total CAF Champions League tie against TP Mazembe in Lubumbashi.

Simba were left unhappy due to CAF’s decision to replace Ethiopian referee Bamlak Tessama with his Zambian counterpart Janny Sikazwe for their second leg tie against TP Mazembe this coming weekend.

Ethiopians Bamlak Tessama and Samuel Temesgin were chosen alongside two Kenyan officials Gilbert Kipkoech Cheruiyot and Peter Waweru to oversee the game but CAF has replaced the officials with a team from Zambian and Eritrea, due to ‘technical reasons.’

Janny Sikazwe, Romeo Kasengele, Audrick Nkole from Zambia and Berhe Tesfagiogis from Eritrea will now officiate the tie.

However, Simba wrote to CAF through the Tanzania Football Federation requesting CAF reinstates the earlier appointed officials for a fair game.

Simba who also employ Ugandan international Emmanuel Okwi and Murushid Jjuko claim that the abrupt change of the officials came with speculations.

Especially since the newly appointed officials are from Zambia, they may officiate in TP Mazembe’s favour since DR Congo and Zambia are neighboring countries.

The Tanzanian outfits went on to protest that as a club, they were not consulted by CAF upon making these changes and that the ‘technical issues’ that led to change of officials are unknown.

The highly anticipated tie is hanging on the balance after a goalless stalemate in the first leg at the Dar-es-Salaam National Stadium on Saturday.