La Masia fume over ‘daylight robbery’ in Polokwane
Footage in 2-1 loss forcefully deleted, alleges Hendricks
NB La Masia coach Delano Hendricks has accused referee Olani Kwinda of dubious refereeing during their match against Polokwane City on Sunday in the Motsepe Foundation Championship.
City came from a goal down to win 2-1, albeit through a questionable penalty decision in the second half.
Hendricks said there have been decisions that went against his side and he believes the referee was biased against La Masia.
The victory saw City remain top of the table with 25 points from 11 matches.
Footage emerged of a fracas at the end of the match with both benches coming close to blows.
“What we went through on Sunday... it’s demoralising when you work so hard and I don’t think this is the first time we experienced something like this but I think this one was the worst I’ve seen,” Hendricks told Sowetan yesterday.
“To start, the league forms part of PSL rules and they [Polokwane] tell you that you cannot video the game and secondly, you are told that if you want footage then you can get it from SuperSport.
“Only to see when the SuperSport crew arrived there they are not allowed in at the stadium.
“We don’t even have footage of it at a professional level of football.
“We are leading the game 1-0 and we are going into the break and when we come out within the first 10 minutes their players are just falling towards our players and looking to get one sent off.
“Then the ball bounces into our box and our player wins the ball and gets bumped by the opposition player. Both go down, suddenly they are awarded a penalty. I have never seen [any]thing like that in my life.
“We had three or four offside calls where we were supposed to score. We had two clear penalties which were supposed to be awarded to us and they were not awarded.”
The coach also claims they were told on Saturday that their analysts were not allowed to take videos of the game and that they will get it from the television station.
“There were media guys who also recorded some stuff on their phones while the game was happening.
And once the game was finished, they were approached and forcefully instructed to delete the videos from their phones.”
Polokwane City CEO Tincy Tema refused to comment.
Pay channel SuperSport refuted claims their crew was barred from filming the match.
“SuperSport was not due to broadcast (or record) this fixture yesterday,” spokesperson Clinton van der Berg said.
Results:
PTA University 0-1 Platinum Rovers;
Casric Stars 2-0 Hungry Lions; PTA Callies 0-1 All-Stars, CPT Spurs 2-1 Venda;
JDR Stars 1-0 TTM; Baroka 1-1 Magesi; Uthongathi 2-2 Leopards; Polokwane 2-1 La Masia.
SuperSport was not due to broadcast (or record) this fixture yesterday
Clinton van der Berg SUPERSPORT SPOKESPERSON