By
A Premier Soccer League (PSL) match official has been pulled off the roster after incorrectly flagging a goal offside in the fixture between Swallows FC and TS Galaxy at Dobsonville Stadium last month.
SABC Sport has it on good authority that assistant referee Cledwin Baloyi has not been involved in a topflight encounter since the incident, which irked both Swallows coach Ernst Middendorp and chairman David Mogashoa.
Mogashoa had confirmed to the public broadcaster he’d filed a complaint to the league regarding the disallowed goal as it had cost the Dube Birds maximum points on the day.
Baloyi adjudged striker Waseem Isaacs offside when he set up teammate and defender Keegan Allen for what would have been the winning goal during the game, but replays showed the match official got it wrong.
“We had a game with Galaxy where a linesman denied us a clear goal. I wrote a letter to the league to complain about him and I was very clear in my letter that I don’t want him at Swallows games anymore,” Mogashoa said.
“You can’t have that kind of decision that costs the club points and gets coaches fired. You know, sometimes the coaches are not fired by the club chairmen, they are fired by the referees. We just need to make sure the referees are consistent.”
It’s not just Baloyi who has seemingly been put on ice – SABC Sport has since reported that Tshidiso Maruping has been suspended for 12 weeks.
His error was allowing a dubious penalty by concluding defender Siyabonga Nhlapho had handled the ball in the box when Arrows beat SuperSport United 2-1 in Durban.
This came a week after he failed to award a spot kick to TS Galaxy in their goalless draw against Royal AM in the same city last month.
It is understood there is a leadership vacuum within the South African Football Association’s (Safa) refereeing structure because there is still no functioning National Referees Committee (NRC).
Abdul Ebrahim, the incumbent head of referees, did not respond to enquiries from SABC Sport on the latest developments.
