Former FIFA referee Ace Ncobo has insisted that SuperSport United should’ve had a penalty before Mamelodi Sundowns scored the opener in Monday’s Tshwane Derby.
Masandawana beat their Pretoria rivals 1-0 thanks to a solitary goal by Neo Maema to go 16 points clear of Gavin Hunt’s side, who sit in third place.
However, the result could’ve been different had match official Luxolo Badi pointed to the spot in the 37th minute of the game – six minutes before Downs’ opener.
Ncobo explains that Khuliso Mudau fouled Thapelo Maseko inside the box, but neither the referee nor his assistant made the right call.
“The referee has a clear view but there are things that are happening which are outside of the assistant and sometimes outside of the view of the referee,” he said on SuperSport’s Extra-Time.
“A corner kick is given, no penalty. Both the assistant referee and the referee are focussing on the feet of the player and they miss something very crucial there.
“The first thing is that there is holding that’s hidden from the assistant referee because it’s in front of the player.
“Then [this pull], it’s clear the assistant referee should’ve seen that one, it’s hidden from the referee because the referee is obscured by the Sundowns player.
“Now, they are still outside of the penalty area [but] inside the penalty area the holding was still continuing and we know that with holding it’s not where it starts but where it finishes that the referee must then make a decision.
“So that should’ve been given as a penalty. They focussed on the feet, there was no foul on the feet.
“Of course the striker caught his log on the foot of the defender because he had that ramp down.
“There are moments when the assistant referee should’ve seen it, there moments when the referee should’ve’ seen it – at least one of them should’ve picked it up but nobody saw anything.”
