Time Safa cracked whip on bad refs

Premier Soccer League (PSL) referees hogged the headlines for all the wrong reasons this past week.

As we head into this weekend’s round of fixtures, we can only hope for an improved offering from the match officials.

Much as we understand that no one is immune to mistakes, we still believe our refs can do a better job than the blatant mistakes that we witnessed in the last batch of games.

But it should start with Safa, who as the custodian of refereeing in SA, have a critical role to play in the development of match officials.

With so much revenue streaming into the domestic game, a portion of the funding should be channelled into referees development programmes.

Already top end technology is in place. Cape Town City boss John Comitis alluded to this fact in his interview with this newspaper this week.

Comitis’ City were on the receiving end of poor officiating when they had a legitimate goal disallowed against Polokwane City last Friday.

It is disappointing that Safa is trying to spin the chaotic state of affairs in the national referees structure, whose head Peter Sejake has been suspended.

Blatant mistakes by whistle men and their assistants cannot go unpunished for so long.

We want to see the review committee show its fangs and crack the same whip that saw eight match officials suspended for under-performance last year.

Otherwise the Safa referees review committee would be deemed a toothless bulldog than being a functional structure.