Kaizer Chiefs coach Muhsin Ertugral has called on the South African Football Association’s review committee to ban Maritzburg United defender Gary Goldstone ”for at least 10 weeks”. The Turkish-born coach was fuming after a stiff elbow challenge by Goldstone put his striker Tshepo Bulu in hospital with a broken nose and another broken bone under his eye.
Chiefs were beaten 3-2 by the Absa Premiership rookies at the Chatsworth Stadium on Sunday in what Ertugral described as ”a war”.
United coach Gordon Igesund said he would not tolerate such incidents and that Goldstone would be called before the club’s disciplinary committee once he had watched the incident on video.
Said Igesund: ”I did not see the incident. But I will not allow any of my players to go over the top or deliberately injure any opponent. I promise that should Goldstone be guilty, I will take action against him.”
”I will not tolerate any unprofessional conduct on the field. I am of the old school where games are played hard, but fair. I will also not tolerate deliberate dirty play. Had Goldstone been sent off we could have lost the match and three points we worked so hard for.”
Goldstone got off lightly with a yellow card from referee Abdul Ebrahim in the 69th minute.
Said a furious Ertugral: ”That elbow in the face was as bad as I have seen. In the Bundesliga or anywhere in Europe that type of challenge would warrant at least a 10 week ban. It was disgraceful.”
The chairperson of the Safa review committee, Steve Goddard, was the match commissioner on Sunday.
He said: ”I will put the incident in my report and ask the committee — minus myself as the match commissioner — to view the incident. But to be brutally honest, there is nothing in our rules that indicates we can suspend or take further action against a player. We can only follow the rules. But this could be breaking new ground as usually we use video evidence to look at referees’ performances or mistaken identity — if a club believes a wrong player was sent off or booked.”
Ertugral also blamed Igesund for the physical way his team played.
”I am disappointed in Gordon’s tactics. You could see if from the first whistle when one of their defenders was booked after only 30 seconds for a bad foul. ”
But Ertugral said Chiefs were to blame for the defeat. ”We had three clear-cut chances to score in the second half and we still missed a penalty. It was frustrating.”
Ertugral also complained about the state of the Chatsworth dressing room, describing it as a ”toilet”.
”The state of the dressing room was a disgrace. It should not be allowed in this day and age and when we will be hosting the 2010 World Cup. Such pathetic facilities should be condemned or upgraded. But that is no excuse why we lost. We simply did not take our chances and paid the price.”
Igesund was delighted with his side’s four points from two matches. ”I thought tactically we had the better of the game. They had a couple of chances but overall I thought we deserved our win. I am pleased with the commitment and we will go from strength to strength. One must not forget that I have built a completely new team here and [we are] determined to do well. We showed against Chiefs we can hold our own and beat the best in the league.”
Igesund was sent off two minutes from time for ”wandering” out of the coach’s area.
Sipho Mngomezulu, Brice Aka and Fadlu Davids scored for United while Bulu and Jonathan Quartey netted for Chiefs. Ghanaian Quartey also had an 88th minute penalty saved by United’s goalkeeper, Hunter Gilstrap. – Sapa