Andrew Muchineripi Soccer
Test cricket umpire Mervyn Kitchen is not the only official removing dollops of egg from his face. Premier Soccer League referee Achmat Salie cautioned Orlando Pirates midfielder Naughty Mokoena twice on Sunday without sending him off.
Mokoena received a yellow card soon after half-time at Vaal Professionals in the opening round of 1998-1999 Premiership action and another while celebrating his last-minute equaliser. A second booking means automatic expulsion.
Salie, a carpenter from Cape Town, captured the attention of the nation a few weeks ago when selected as an assistant referee for the World Cup final between hosts France and defending champions Brazil.
He did South Africa proud before a capacity 80E000 crowd at the futuristic Stade de France, giving a virtually flawless performance which earned him 9,5 out of 10 from the official assessors.
So his blunder at Iscor Stadium in the Vaal Triangle amid scenes of frenzied celebration from relieved Pirates supporters came as a surprise and was not noticed by any of the large media contingent present.
It was league representative Andrew Dipela who “broke” the news of the Salie slip to some slightly embarrassed members of the fourth estate at the midweek PSL media conference in Johannesburg.
Quicker than wild west gunslingers when it comes to criticising the shortcoming of others, it was a sad reflection of the media present at the Pirates match that none noticed the mistake.
Not being a full-time member of the media establishment, I was elsewhere when Dipela broke the news. How- ever, I am reliably informed by those who were present that the public relations officer bore a grin that would have done any Cheshire cat proud.
It was not a good weekend for referees, with senior official Raymond Rogers disallowing a legitimate goal scored by defending champions Sundowns against Cape Town Spurs at Bellville Stadium.
Slow motion television replays proved beyond doubt that a Randall Borman shot beat goalkeeper Moeneeb Joseph just inside his near post and then trickled out of the goal through a hole in the side netting.
Rogers from Durban was unduly influenced by quick-acting Spurs players, who provided a display of innocent protestation any battle- scarred Italian football professional would have been proud of.
Why, dare I ask the not-so- humble football powers that be, did the usual pre-match inspection not reveal the hole in the netting at a venue being utilised for the first time by the league.
The match finished 1-1, so let us keep our fingers crossed that Sundowns do not surrender the league title by one point come next June. Otherwise, Rogers is unlikely to be a candidate for the freedom of Pretoria.
On Saturday, I sat among sev- eral thousand long-suffering Moroka Swallows fans and was not impressed with the inconsistencies of referee Benjamin Simelane, although I hasten to add that his decisions had no bearing on the result.
Seven Stars won fairly in a match that, once again, demonstrated the uglier side of the game, with many over-the-top tackles going unpunished. How there are not more broken legs in South African football, only the man above knows.
Sunday found me at the Caledonian Stadium in Pretoria for the debut of SuperSport United at a ground with a rich history before it was closed to professional football almost two decades ago due to crowd trouble. Herman Nkuna, like Rogers a long- serving referee, probably wished he had never risen from bed that morning because it certainly was not a performance in keeping with his senior status.
After sending off SuperSport captain Gardner Seale and Hellenic coach Mark Byrne for trading some spicy insults, he awarded United a penalty when Shaheem Bobbs hacked down Richard Peer from behind inside the penalty area. National under-23 defender Bobbs should have walked under the tackle- from-behind law, but he escaped without even a caution. Fortunately the crowd was on its best behaviour and did not react negatively.
My late father constantly reminded me that to err is human and to forgive is divine, and the men in the middle (or should that be muddle) can rest assured that the Muchineripi clan are not about to declare war on them.
They have my sympathy because many incidents happen at breathtaking speed, certainly much faster than the yellow card raised by Salie that the honourable “hacks” never saw. Wonder what they were doing at the time?
The opening round of league action saw five away victories, four draws and a meagre 11 goals with only those at Pam Brink Stadium in Springs witnessing more than two.
Bloemfontein Celtic triumphed 2-1 away to Jomo Cosmos, which was not only the surprise of the round but also put Phunya Sele Sele on top of the table. This holiday weekend they host Kaizer Chiefs and Dynamos.