Referees need extra time as Bafana are kept waiting
BAFANA Bafana’s match against the Gambia kicked off four hours late yesterday because two of the four match officials from Madagascar missed their flight to South Africa.
The 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier was to have kicked off at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban at 3pm, but was rescheduled to four hours later because of the delayed arrival of the officials.
The group were booked on the same afternoon flight from Antananarivo to Johannesburg.
But only referee Hamada el Moussa and his first assistant Jinoro Ferdinand landed at OR Tambo International Airport on Friday evening.
The Madagascar referees’ department contacted their South African counterparts to tell them the other two officials, second assistant referee Eric Pierre Jean and fourth official Ohabee Kanoso, were arriving only yesterday because they missed their flight.
“To be honest I have not been informed fully what led to them missing the flight,” said Dominic Chimhavi, spokesman of the South African Football Association.
“They were supposed to be on the same flight and were scheduled to arrive in South Africa at 8pm on Friday night.
“Their referees’ department informed our department about the failure of the two to arrive as scheduled.”
Jean and Kanoso flew straight to Durban’s King Shaka International Airport.
“It was agreed to give them time to recover from the five-hour flight and the kick-off time was moved to 7pm,” said Chimhavi.
He said both coaches, South Africa’s Shakes Mashaba and his opposite number Raoul Savoy, understood the situation.
“They understand the logistical challenges on the continent, that if you miss the flight you’re dead.”
The delay did not disrupt pay channel SuperSport’s scheduling. Its spokesman, Clinton van der Berg, said: “It is the nature of live sport and we just took it in our stride. No stress at all.”
SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said: “We had to work around the delay, reschedule programming and negotiate with the advertisers. It was no train smash.”