Former Kaizer Chiefs defender Tefu Mashamaite has touched on the standard of officiating in the Premier Soccer League (PSL).
The retired footballer said officiating has always been poor during his playing days, he told Lorenz Köhle on the Bettor Pod.
“It was the same when I was playing, there’s no standard that has dropped, the standard has always been low, we’ve been complaining about the refs, it was the same thing [when I was playing],” said the former Kaizer Chiefs star.
“They are very arrogant, I’m sorry to say this. I remember during my time, as a captain you approach the ref to try and get an explanation of his decision and he tells you; ‘you are not my captain’, I’m like what was the point of me wearing an armband if I can’t come and represent my team [on decisions].
“But I also feel the system protects them a lot, in England, you have review committees who take real action where yellow cards and red cards get rescinded, but here in South Africa, the referee makes a mistake and gets away with it.
Ex-Kaizer Chiefs captain says the standard of officiating has always been poor locally
Mashamaite enjoyed his career at Amakhosi, winning several titles.
He is still the last captain to lift a trophy for Amakhosi. Having won the league title with Kaizer Chiefs in 2015, Mashamaite made a surprise move to BK Hacken in Sweden. He only spent one year overseas before returning to South Africa to join SuperSport United.
Mashamaite said at the end of the day, referees make mistakes and called for Video Assistant Refereeing (VAR).
“They are human at the end of the day, pressure does count, I don’t think there’s anything sinister like brown envelopes, we always got accused of it at Chiefs when we were winning, they also said Bobby [Motaung] was pushing brown envelopes,” the ex-Kaizer Chiefs skipper added.
What should PSL do to improve the standard of officiating?
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