In light of the serious blunders and contentious refereeing decisions that have been made by South African referees in various Premier Soccer League matches this season, Sport has launched a tool to track and record all dubious refereeing decisions.
The PSL Referee Blunder Tracker will be used to track contentious refereeing decisions in all PSL organised matches, be it the MTN8, Carling Cup, Nedbank Cup or the Betway Premiership.
The tool will track and record all incidents starting from October 5, 2024, which was the day of the MTN8 Cup Final between Orlando Pirates and Stellenbosch.
Other high profile recent incidents, including those two dubious calls in the Kaizer Chiefs vs Mamelodi Sundowns, will not be recorded as they happened before the games started being tracked.
Sport journalists will update the PSL Referee Blunder every match day for the rest of the season.
Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie has in recent weeks amplified calls for the VAR, video assistant referee technology, and this tool can be used as a tool to further amplify the urgent need for intervention in South African refereeing, be it professionalising the service, or simply giving the officials much needed assistance and hopefully, removing the sense of some teams feeling hard done by dodgy refereeing decisions.
Incident Number: 1
Referee Involved: Abongile Tom
What happened?
Orlando Pirates midfielder Monnapule Saleng was fouled by a Stellenbosch defender during the MTN8 Cup Final. The referee blew for the foul and play stopped. However, Pirates midfielder Relebohile Mokoena quickly took a quick free kick about 7 metres away from where the foul was committed, played a through ball behind the Stellies defence, leading to Mabasa scoring with a neat left foot finish.
According to Law 13 of the International Football Association Board: “All free kicks are taken from the place where the offence occurred” and that the ball “must be stationary”.
Any action taken by SAFA?
None so far.
