On April 9, referee Thabo Mkhabela awarded Mamelodi Sundowns a penalty against Cape Town Spurs, who had long been haunted by relegation until they finally went down. The foul however had taken place outside the box, making the error one of many high-profile blunders by referees in the past season.
Ebrahim was satisfied with how match officials performed at the ABC Motsepe national play-offs, concluded at Mxolisi Dicky Jacobs Stadium in Upington last Sunday.
"I do believe the referees do very well at the tournament. They were one of two incidents that we picked up that could have been handled differently by the match officials but what we are very satisfied about is that none of the incidents that occurred determined the outcome of the game....that's extremely important,'' Ebrahim said.
Safa promises refs will be better next season
Ebrahim says officials will learn from mistakes
Image: Lefty Shivambu
Admitting that match officials made some big errors in the 2023/24 PSL season, while he applauded the standard of officiating in the recently concluded ABC Motsepe national playoffs in Upington, Safa head of referees Abdul Ebrahim is optimistic that the 2024/25 term will see improved performances from the referees.
To say the 2023/24 PSL was imperfect as far as officiating is concerned would be an understatement as match officials made a series of errors that ended up having far-reaching consequences for clubs. Coaches such as Cape Town Spurs' Ernst Middendorp, AmaZulu Pablo Franco and Rulani Mokwena of Mamelodi Sundowns led the public outcry over dubious officiating in the past season.
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On April 9, referee Thabo Mkhabela awarded Mamelodi Sundowns a penalty against Cape Town Spurs, who had long been haunted by relegation until they finally went down. The foul however had taken place outside the box, making the error one of many high-profile blunders by referees in the past season.
Ebrahim was satisfied with how match officials performed at the ABC Motsepe national play-offs, concluded at Mxolisi Dicky Jacobs Stadium in Upington last Sunday.
"I do believe the referees do very well at the tournament. They were one of two incidents that we picked up that could have been handled differently by the match officials but what we are very satisfied about is that none of the incidents that occurred determined the outcome of the game....that's extremely important,'' Ebrahim said.
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"With refereeing in general, you want to see an improvement from a year before. I know that there was a week or two where there were major [errors by match officials]... they were in the news. Yes, I have to admit, there were errors made, but development in refereeing is always ongoing.
"Like everybody in life, you can always improve on the previous performance and this is what we remind our match officials about. We tell them not to sit on the mistakes they may have made...learn from them and then look forward to the next game. We rehabilitate them and hopefully they will have a stronger showing in the coming season."
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