Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena refused to be drawn into the controversy surrounding TS Galaxy and the ongoing feud that boiled over in Mbombela on Tuesday.
There were unsavoury scenes after the 1-1 draw on Tuesday evening between the two sides, which saw police intervening to separate the two camps with the feud between Mokwena and Sead Ramovic spilling over between staff.
After the game, in the post-match press conference, Mokwena stated there was not much to speak about the game, which he earlier described as the worst match he’d been involved in before.
“There’s not much to say about the game, I’m not involved in football for these types of matches, so I don’t want to speak too much about the match, there were many incidents, Tash [Matthews], the first half is a clear penalty,” Mokwena said.
“Mabena’s incident, in the second half, is a clear penalty, so many fouls that go against us, Marcelo Allende, gets stamped on and gets a yellow, they score and the whole bench just jumps into our faces and shows so much disrespect. I don’t like that, I’m not involved in football for that.
“Sorry, I love football for friendship, I love football for good memories, I love football for the purity of the game and what it brings to people, the joy it brings to people, so yeah, playing TS Galaxy at the moment is torture, it’s something I don’t enjoy at the moment.”
Mokwena said he would not comment on what he said about the Bongani Zungu red card challenge, where he previously claimed that Ramovic had shown the players a video of Bernard Parker’s leg break before the faced off at Loftus Versfeld last month.
In what was an accusation of a premeditated tackle to injure Zungu, Galaxy took offence to his public claim and has taken the matter to the Johannesburg High Court, where they are seeking a retraction and public apology from Mokwena in a defamation lawsuit.
“I don’t wanna talk about anything, they have taken it to court, so let’s meet in court,” he said when asked about the accusations he made about the Zungu tackle before saying he can’t focus on the feud and what it has caused of late.
“I don’t worry about TS Galaxy, I have to worry about Sundowns, I am employed by Sundowns, I have to, at this moment, even with the feelings I have, I have to be very proud of my players because it was a difficult game for them to play.
“It was tough emotionally, and physically, and they dug deep, and showed incredible mentality and that’s the feeling I would love Mbombela with that, pride, gratitude, and appreciation for the efforts and the hard work of a special Mamelodi Sundowns group of players.”
