The Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) is setting a wrong precedent in twisting the laws of the game to 'suit certain prevailing environments', a senior Football Association County referee and assessor based in England has said.

Justin Gapara who is one of the top referees and assessors in Birmingham said ZIFA violated the laws of the game in rescinding Christian Epoupa's red card for head butting Peter Mudhuwa in a league match at Rufaro stadium last Sunday. 

Gapara defended the referee of the day Arnold Ncube saying he applied the law of the game correctly and the incident was clearly seen by viewers on television.

“What actually happened in that incident is deplorable to be honest because this is a player red carded for violent conduct, it should not be rescinded," said Gapara.

He shot down at arguments that Epoupa was harassed by Highlanders players throughout the game saying: 

"If there was any incident that happened prior to that head butting incident, the disciplinary committee should take action in retrospect but to say that a player has been red carded by the referee and the decision is rescinded is not correct.  This is an incident that the referee has seen and is clear for everybody to see that he is head butting a Highlanders player and that is a violent conduct and that has to be punished. And for me the punishment is fair and is a straight red card under law number 12 Fouls and Misconduct and the committee should not rescind that red card,".

The U.K. based referee assessor said the laws of the game are universal and therefore should not be applied selectively. He said selective application of the laws of the game will bring the sport into disrepute as players will in future take the law into their own hands.

"It shouldn't be for ZIFA itself but it should be for a committee within ZIFA who preside over referees to actually look at the performance of the referees and say the referee of the day was not good enough and need to improve on the aspect of protecting players. Then maybe the referee is going to be dropped for a game or two and that's fair. But to say every time there is a decision of that nature happening then ZIFA will come and rescind the red card, it's going to promote situations where players will take the laws into their own hands," added Gapara.

There was an outcry across the country from football stakeholders on Monday when ZIFA issued a statement reversing a red card given to Epoupa on Sunday with critics accusing ZIFA president Philip Chiyangwa for making a unilateral decision to aide Dynamos ahead of the Harare derby against CAPS United this Sunday. 

In his book Soul Of Seven Million Dreams, former Dynamos captain Memory Mucherahohwa highlighted that Chiyangwa had a soft spot for Dynamos and would give the players loads of money.  

Last year Chiyangwa intervened in the Dynamos crisis calling on the club's executive to fire then coach Paulo Jorge Silva arguing that the Portuguese was not capable of leading DeMbare to the title.