SABC Sport has established that the SAFA review committee has suspended three match officials from Premier Soccer League [PSL] games for a period of four months, recommending a rehabilitation program.
This follows an incorrect call referee Velaphi Sicelo, alongside his assistant Jantjie Dlamini and fourth official Tshediso Maruping, made during the Motsepe Foundation Championship clash between Casric Stars and Venda FC last month.
With the two sides level at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in added time, the review committee felt there was “no teamwork and communication”, which led to Venda FC benefitting from an offside goal and winning the game 3-2.
In a letter to the match officials and seen by the public broadcaster, the panel concluded that they should be banned for 16 weeks given their failure to spot the error, which then “had a direct impact on the outcome of the match”.
Although the game was not televised, a video of the incident began doing the rounds on social media a few hours after the fixture.
The review committee, however, would not have made the decision due to the public uproar as they meet every week to discuss officiating in the PSL, which has come under serious criticism this season – especially without the use of the video assistant referee [VAR] technology in the PSL.
Sicelo, Dlamini and Maruping will have to regularly meet with an instructor during the four months they are banned from officiating professional matches.
The review committee also revealed in their report that Maruping had lied in his assessment about the incident in the Casric versus Venda FC clash.
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