Words fly after referee, assistants fail to show up
SAFA Eastern Cape is again at odds with club bosses, this time over a failure by match officials to show up for an ABC Motsepe League clash between Angavu Stars and Cacadu United.
The game, scheduled for East London’s North End Stadium, could not go ahead, much to the irritation of Angavu boss Kenny Tofi and his United counterpart Patrick Jokani.
A fuming Tofi believes football in the province is “in deep trouble” if such incidents continued unabated.
According to Safa EC secretary Isaac Klaas, the game was called off after it emerged that the officials assigned for it had been double-booked.
He said the game would be rescheduled at United’s cost in terms of transporting themselves back to North End Stadium.
An angry Jokani said the incident was “nothing new” as it had become “the way of doing things in this league”.
Klaas acknowledged that it was costly for teams to travel long distances for a no-show, but promised to make sure it did not happen again.
Klaas said the host club’s chairman (in this case Tofi), in agreement with his counterpart from the opponents, had the “responsibility” to appoint their own referee when finding themselves in such circumstances.
Laughing, Tofi charged: “That sounds scary, I think that statement is opening a can of worms.
“He must not shift the blame, it is his responsibility to intervene when these things happen. Our [club owners] involvement in anything that has to do with referees is very minimal. We all know about operation dribble and we do not want a repeat.”
Tofi’s team are the defending champions of the league.
Klaas said the the centralisation of the appointment of referees was in part to blame, although he understood this was done to avoid rogue elements.
“The appointment of match officials was centralised to national office to curb corrupt elements and to ensure referees did not have direct contact with club owners.
“But perhaps now part of this responsibility must be given to provinces to avoid such things as the failure of referees to show up happening again in the future,” he said.
But Tofi accused Klaas of delaying tactics when asked to explain what exactly had happened.
“I have given up on these [Safa] people. Since I last spoke to him last weekend he promised he would get back to me but has not done that, and you can rest assured I will not be calling him again in relation to this matter,” Tofi said.
Klaas rebutted by saying he was still awaiting a full explanation from national office which he would communicate to club owners of the affected teams. Fixtures: Tonight – Real City v FC Elliot (Motherwell Stadium at 7pm), FC Buffalo v Swartkops Valley United Brothers (Jan Smuts Stadium at 6pm), Mthatha City v Zimbane Killers FC (Mthatha Stadium at 6pm), Highbury v Kokstad Liverpool (Gelvandale Stadium at 7pm).
Tomorrow (all at 3pm) – Mthatha Bucks v Matta Milan (Rotary Stadium), La Liga v Jeffreys Bay Milan (Thandanani Stadium), Cacadu United v Morning Stars (Alex High School sports ground), Tembu Royals v Angavu Stars (Rotary Stadium).