A referee is facing murder charges after football players forced him to kill a member of an 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 on fire to smoke him out, according to Foster.

When the referee ran out of the burning building, the players forced him to beat a Billiat FC player 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