Former PSL referee Victor Hlungwani feels match officials in South Africa have become the scapegoat following the criticism directed in the way of Sikhumbuzo Gasa last weekend.
Gasa has been on the spot for what some observers deemed an offside goal scored by Mamelodi Sundowns in their 2-1 win over Kaizer Chiefs on Saturday before Amakhosi had a second one ruled out in what match officials termed a foul in the build-up.
Hlungwani has since termed both decisions correct, amid claims of poor officiating from a section of fans as well as Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi, and he feels referees have turned into the scapegoats when they are actually performing well.
Are PSL referees really blameless?
”Remember there are processes at SAFA where they review all the games, when they review all these games they make recommendations with the technical committee, if the technical committee agrees with the recommendations that maybe the referee at, there are consequences, at times the technical committee agrees with the decision of the referee, so there's no crisis. So, people might say crisis crisis because they have lost. FIFA fair play says accept defeat with dignity and try to play better next time,” Hlungwani said on SABC.
“So, referees are used as scapegoats, when people lose games they don't check how many chances they missed. I can't mention names, but I saw players missing many chances, but they now want to look at one mistake by the referee. We are human beings, we do make mistakes, but don't use us as scapegoats, accept defeat and try to do better next time.”
Hlungwani sees nothing factual in the complaints
The veteran referee says coaches have been using referees to run away from responsibility, calling for sobriety rather than emotional reactions.
“'How many games have we played now? Dan dance [Malesela], he tried to say that Molangoane was not supposed to be sent off and we cleared it here on Soccer zone, to say – that is dogso, so correct decision by the referee,” he added.
“Some people are complaining just for complaining, they are not giving us facts in terms of the laws of the games. Support your argument with facts not emotions, so what we are seeing here is emotions not facts. Until such time we get people giving us facts connected with the laws of the game, we will just say – people need to accept defeat with dignity and plan better next time.”
