Safa head of referees Abdul Ebrahim has stated the reaction to the penalty awarded to Kaizer Chiefs during last Saturday’s 1-1 Premier Soccer League draw against AmaZulu is “disappointing” but feels match officials are “humans” susceptible to errors.
Chiefs were trailing 1-0 since the start of the second half until they were controversially awarded an injury-time penalty by referee Jelly Chavani after an Usuthu defender was adjudged to have handled inside the box.
Keagan Dolly converted from the spot and the whole incident drew the ire of AmaZulu coach Benni McCarthy as well as fans who vented their anger on social media.
Ebrahim feels the incident does not make Chavani and Moeketsi Molelekoa, the fourth he consulted, “bad” match officials overnight.
“The comments that have been received from people following the Kaizer Chiefs and AmaZulu game are disappointing,” said Ebrahim as per Sowetan Live.
“The refs are human and unfortunately they make mistakes and if a referee makes one mistake that does not make him a bad referee.
“We are constantly educating our refs. When a ref is suspended, they are assigned a mentor who sits with them maybe three times a week going through incidents and how to deal better with incidents in future.”
Chavani could, however, be facing sanctions from the Safa Referee Review Committee if they find him to have wrongly awarded Chiefs the penalty.
Ebrahim says the incident has been scrutinised and they are awaiting recommendations from the committee.
“I can say the incident has been reviewed and the only thing we are waiting for is the report from the review committee,” Ebrahim said.
“Unfortunately I cannot pre-empt the recommendation from the review committee. I do sit in the review committee meetings, however, I am there as a technical person and I do not get involved in the recommendations.
“I don’t want to harp too much on the incident in the Kaizer Chiefs and AmaZulu game until the report is received from the review committee. We have a review committee that reviews all the incidents from the past week’s games and the committee thereafter prepares a report which contains recommendations.”
Earlier this year, Chavani was suspended for four weeks after failing to award Orlando Pirates a penalty in their match against Swallows FC.
