SAFA Head of Referees Abdul Ebrahim has explained why the match officials will be at the Princess Magogo Stadium tonight, expecting the Golden Arrows vs Kaizer Chiefs to go ahead.
Amakhosi are scheduled to play Golden Arrows at 19:30 on Wednesday but insisted they can not travel to KZN after 36 staff members overall tested positive.
However, there has been no official communication from the Premier Soccer League and Ebrahim insisted that in the absence of an official statement it will again be a case of the match officials appearing at the stadium – as happened on Saturday when the officials and Cape Town City arrived at a locked FNB Stadium.
“In the absence of official correspondence which should be sent by the Premier Soccer League, in the absence of that the officials will follow their normal procedure,” Ebrahim told Robert Marawa on Marawa Sports Worldwide.
“Yes, we do know about what is happening, what is going on. But we cannot take instruction from any club with regard to whether a match can be played or not.
“We receive a fixture, we do the necessary, the match officials have a procedure that they do follow and it will get followed unless we do receive official correspondence that the match indeed has been postponed.”
Ebrahim also confirmed that he has received no word from the assigned match officials that the game has been called off.
“I’m sure they are (in Durban), I haven’t heard anything to the contrary,” he added.
“Usually the match officials would give me a call – if there is an anomaly but thus far I have not heard anything of the contrary from the match officials.”
Ebrahim highlighted that despite Chiefs’ statement, they take the game as being scheduled and not postponed unless they receive communication from the PSL.
“I do understand that Kaizer Chiefs may have reasons for not attending or nulling the matches or wanting the matches to be postponed,” he explained.
“But again I need to reiterate it unless anything is official, anything is assumed to be as normal.
“There is a protocol that we need to follow. Unless there is any official communication, everything stays as it is.
“That is the reason why match officials went to the stadium, the away team also went to FNB Stadium, they have never been communicated with as well.
“In the absence of that (communication), they assumed that the match would take place as normal.
“The learning curve here is, as far as communication is concerned, unless it is official, everything stays as is and should take place as originally planned.”
