Former FIFA referee Ace Ncobo has analysed the decision of referee Bakary Gassama to reverse the penalty call against Happy Jele after he was initially adjudged to have handled the ball in the area.
Gassama overturned the first-half call in the Orlando Pirates’ 1-0 defeat to Al Ahli, when the scoreline in the second leg semi-final at Orlando Stadium on Sunday was still 0-0 and 2-0 on aggregate to the Buccaneers.
However, the Libyans were incensed by the reversal of the penalty call and at the full-time whistle, there were unsavoury scenes, with their players and technical staff claiming they had been ‘cheated’ of two legitimate penalty calls.
But Ncobo explains, by the letter of the law, it was a spot-on decision from the official as the ball ricocheted off a body part of Jele before hitting his arm inside the area, which is not a penalty.
“The referee makes a decision in order for VAR to come into play, he makes a decision, he runs across to conduct the OFR (on-field review), the VAR in the VAR room is also working on something to advise the referee,” Ncobo explains.
“The referee then looks and says ‘okay’, yes indeed the ball did touch the arm but it came off the limb of the same player, that’s why when he reviews the incident he then decides no, the earlier decision to award the penalty was incorrect upon the OFR, beautiful spot-on decision.”
