Former FIFA referee Victor Hlungwani has delivered a critical assessment of the officiating during Saturday's MTN8 semi-final first leg between Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns, claiming crucial errors influenced the 1-1 draw.
Hlungwani believes a serious mistake was made by only showing Patrick Maswanganyi a yellow card for what he describes as a dangerous foul on Teboho Mokoena that he believes warranted a red card.
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Speaking to Soccer Laduma in an exclusive interview, Hlungwane believes (in his opinion that) the incident constituted serious foul play that endangered the opposition player's safety.
"It was serious foul play. It was brutal against Teboho Mokoena. He endangered the safety of the opposition player with brutality and Maswangwani should have been given the red card and not the yellow card. The referee there made a mistake. That was not a good decision," Hlungwani told Soccer Laduma.
The experienced former official also criticised the decision to disallow Kamogelo Sebelebele's first-half goal for offside, arguing the Pirates player was level with the second-last defender.
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"In the first half Sebelebele's goal was wrongfully denied for an offside while he was in line with the second last defender who in that case was Aubrey Modiba. Since July 1990, the offside rule is that if the attacker is in line with the second last defender then it's not an offside. So that goal should have stood. But on the issue of Tashreeq Matthews, he was in an offside position when he scored for Sundowns as he was the closest player to the opposition goal when he received the ball and was not in line with the second last defender. He was ahead of the second last defender and next to the goalkeeper. So that decision was the right one. He was offside as he was interfering with play," Hlungwani concluded.
Both teams will prepare for the second leg where the winner will take on the team progressing between Stellenbosch FC and Sekhukhune United. Stellies won their first leg 2-0 and are favourites to go through to the final.
