Mazingiza: Yanga SC to investigate Ntibazonkiza incident during Gwambina FC win

Yanga SC have confirmed they will look at the incident which saw striker Saidi Ntibazonkiza celebrate his goal against Gwambina FC in the Mainland Premier League by asking to be substituted.

The Burundian forward put the icing on the cake for the Jangwani giants, notching the third goal in the 3-1 win at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium after receiving a through-ball from Ditram Nchimbi, and immediately ran to the corner flag facing the technical bench and asked to be substituted.

This was after Yanga had made all their substitutions, and he further went to the technical bench where he had a heated exchange with interim coach Juma Mwambusi.

It needed the intervention of his fellow players to calm him down but according to the club’s CEO Senzo Mazingiza, they will discuss the issue during the club’s regular brief meeting on Wednesday to find out what his celebration was about.

“It is unfortunate, I saw what happened and I saw it like you, I was in the stands and if I pronounce it I will be unfair to the player so I need to find out from him exactly what did he mean, what was the issue and for me I thought maybe he was celebrating,” Mazingiza told Goal.

“But obviously this is football and emotions can get high, emotions can happen so I think, he was also excited he scored a goal, a beautiful goal.

“But we will sit down on [Wednesday], when we have our brief and find out what was the issue but I am sure it is not something big to write home about, I mean, it is football.”

On his part, coach Mwambusi downplayed the issue, insisting Ntibazonkiza was celebrating for breaking his goal drought since he had not scored in the last two matches.

“He was very happy to get his first goal after missing out to score in the last two matches,” Mwambusi told reporters after the game.

However, Ntibazonkiza refused to comment on the matter when asked about it, instead saying he was happy to help the team win the match.

“I am happy because we have achieved another win from a game we wanted to win and it is a very important win as we push to achieve the targets we set for the season,” Ntibazonkiza told Goal.

“I don’t think so, we are good and everything is fine, and our team is a unit, but sometimes we have issues during the game, it happens everywhere in the world and the issues are always sorted there in the game.”

“We need to focus on the result, we wanted to win the game and we have won, it is important we look at the win and forget the rest.”

Yanga’s other goals came from Nchimbi and Bakari Mwamnyeto and the win pushed them five points clear at the top with 57 points from 26 matches.