Former FIFA referee Ace Ncobo has dismissed claims that there is a “secret Video Assistant Referee” at work in the Premier Soccer League.
Questions over the refereeing in South Africa have once again escalated after an incident in the Cape Town Spurs match against TS Galaxy.
Referee Thabo Mkhabela had pointed to the spot after an alleged foul inside the box on Samir Nurkovic and Galaxy midfielder Higor Vidal was ready to step up and take the spot-kick. However, 90 seconds later, with the ball already placed on the spot, Mkhabela consulted his assistant referee and overrruled the decision – much to the surprise of the Galaxy players and coaching staff.
The incident was also a major talking point on Extra-Time, where former Mamelodi Sundowns and Bafana Bafana defender Matthew Booth questioned whether there is “secret VAR” at play in the PSL.
“I’m just waiting for Bra Ace to confirm what I’ve suspected for the longest time, that there is secret VAR somewhere,” he argued.
“And I would like to ask my employers [SuperSport] to stop playing replays after an incident and then we see what happens because we’ve seen the replay and I suspect that the referees are waiting for that replay for somebody to talk to them in their ears to say ‘this is what happened’.”
However, Ncobo quickly dismissed those claims, saying no outside who could’ve access to a monitor to watch replays has access to the referee communication system.
“No, no, no. Matthew, there are only five people with the referees coms,” he replied.
“We have four on the pitch, the referee, the two assistants and the fourth official. We have a fifth one, the match commissioner, who only has listening powers – he can’t communicate with the referees.”
Booth, though, still wasn’t convinced with the answer and continued his line of thought.
“I’ve just seen incidents far too often where I’ve been watching at home, seen the replay, the officials have delayed their decision until that replay has been played, that’s just suspicious to me, that’s all I’m saying,” he contined.
Ncobo, however, insisting noone outside the officials can intervene, even though he described the incident as an “inexplicable call” by the assistant referee.
“The radio system is not open system. It’s a closed system, they can only communicate among another,”
“It’s impossible for any outsider to send in a message to any of the match officials.
“This is inexplicable because the assistant referee concurred. Why would he then later decide to give advise to the referee ‘let’s cancel this’. It’s clumsy.”
