Golden Arrows coach Manqoba Mngqithi has expressed his frustrations at match officials for not doing enough to reprimand “naughty” ball boys in Polokwane in midweek.
Late in the league match between Arrows and Polokwane City at the old Peter Mokaba Stadium, Mngqithi’s bench rose in anger and approached a ball boy who was seemingly being mischievous but the home bench led by coach Phuti Mohafe also stood up in defence of the boy with the commotion being calmed by the officials eventually.
It’s not the first time ball boys have taken centre stage in a Rise and Shine home game this season. There were incidents of time wasting from the boys in City’s games against Kaizer Chiefs and Marumo Gallants, respectively where even the coaches of the said sides shared their frustrations.
Mngqithi was asked to relay his side’s incident and he revealed that the ball boy disrespected a player in front of officials, which is the frustrating bit.
“The ball boy hit the player with the ball and the referee could see,” said the former Mamelodi Sundowns coach.
“The fourth official was next to the situation but nothing gets done. It’s just unfortunate when professional players are no longer respected, even by the ball boys because I think there are a lot of things that we take for granted in football. But maybe we will improve.
“I also got a yellow card for telling the referee that there is a clear deliberate hand ball and the referee does not want to sanction and put… It’s a questionable offense but the referees have got their own rules now so what are we going to do.”
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Meanwhile Mohafe defended the ball boy and slammed the opposing bench. particularly assistant coach Musa Bilankulu for his reaction.
“No, man, these guys they just wanted to be brutal on the boy,” said Mohafe.
“So that is why I also reacted on that one because you cannot be a big man with small mind. What that guy did there it’s so uncalled for. What are you showing to the small boys?
“The ball is out, the young boy is taking the ball to the thrower and the thrower leaves the ball to pass him. So what must he do? That has nothing to do with anything else but with the discipline of the player.
“And I didn’t like the way that [Musa] Bilankulu reacted. I didn’t like it. He played football. He’s been in the professional set-up for such a long time.
“The poor boy didn’t do anything wrong there. How can I say this? The wrong thing that he did was to give the thrower of the ball so how is that an issue? That is not an issue.”
