Tinkler: African refs poor
COACH: I CANNOT FAULT OUR PLAYERS
But on the positive side, he reckons they can win in Tunis.
A1-1 draw against Club Africain left SuperSport United coach Eric Tinkler disappointed after his side failed to make the most of home comforts in the Caf Confederation Cup semifinal first leg on Sunday.
“On a personal note I am disappointed with a draw,” said Tinkler
“If you sit down and look at the game, the result doesn’t tell the true story. At this stage and at this level of the competition we should be scoring because the further you advance it becomes increasingly more important.
“I can’t fault the boys, the work ethic and the never-say-die attitude that they had right until the death,” he said.
Tinkler was not only disappointed by the result, but he felt his team were victims of poor officiating. Seychelles referee Bernard Camille gave Club Africain a dodgy penalty in the first half and failed to take action over the Tunisians’ time-wasting antics.
“I don’t know why it always has to be us, but I think we really need to question the standard of the referees in Africa because right now I simply don’t believe that is good enough. We always talk about Fifa Fair Play but there is nothing fair about players going down and feigning injuries.
“The last time I checked the rules is that the only time a referee has to stop the match is when he has given a foul or when there is a head injury. We had guys going down saying their ankles hurt, their shoulders hurt.
“It takes away the shine of the African game and how good it is. It is really sad, I must be honest. People come to the stadiums to watch good football, not to watch people diving all over the ground, it is a bit of a mockery,” he said.
Going into the second leg scheduled for the third weekend of October, Tinkler is confident of muscling into the final.
“When I look at our squad, we will go there and score. We wanted to get a clean sheet but it is not the end of the world. When I look at the overall performance of the team I really believe we can hurt them.”