Those darn bees

Khemara's Paris Zidougha (24) has a battle on his hands to get credited with their 1st goal. Photo nicksellsphotography

Another bee in my bonnet surfaced at yesterday's Metfone C-League game between Khemara and the Army. Khemara equalised as half-time approached with a flukey goal when Ek Vannak volleyed a shot against the knee of Army defender Thong Oudom and the ball ricocheted onto the head of Paris Zidougha before cannoning into the net. It was clearly, in anyone's book, Zidougha's goal and he celebrated as such. However, not in the eyes of the official match commissioner Thorm Angkeara. At half-time I checked with the officials and their version is that the goal was credited to Ek Vannak because it was his shot and Zidougha's involvement was purely unintentional. WTF has that got to do with anything? Vannak's name was announced over the loudspeaker and was shown on the official match result card, despite my insistence that their thinking was completely off the wall. When did intention have anything to do with goalscoring, I've never read that in any football rulebook. It's the last attacking player to touch the ball before it crosses the goal-line who gets the credit for any goal, the whole world and their dog knows that. So why do the Cambodian football federation match officials play by different rules? Sometimes I really do despair.