Benni McCarthy has revealed what SuperSport United coach Kaitano Tembo said to him that led to his massive outburst on the sidelines recently.
The reigning DStv Premiership of the Season was caught on camera, having a go at Tembo during the recent goalless draw between both sides.
However, while cameras picked up what McCarthy had said, they didn’t really catch Kaitano’s words and McCarthy now told his side of the story and why he reacted so emotionally after being insulted by the opposition coach.
“All I did was, the SuperSport bench was putting a lot of pressure on the referee, and then obviously when the rules were reversed, when we started doing it, we were told to f-off and sit down and blablabla,” he told Thomas Mlambo on the Ultimate Sport Show.
“And that’s when I said to the opposition coach, I said ‘coach, you can’t ask us to sit down and then you guys do the same and you pressure the referee so every decision that goes your way and we must just sit back. So now we’re also going to pressure’.
“Then I was told to ‘shut up’, ’shut up, you f-ing c***’. And that was for me, that was the ultimate. If someone calls me a c*** which I’m definitely not and I know I shouldn’t engage on that but I won’t say that. So if someone calls me that then of course now you’re not just going about the football, now you’re attacking the individual and that is me.
“So of course I had every single right to stand up for myself and that’s exactly what I did, stand up for myself because I’m no wimp, I ain’t getting bullied by a coach or anyone else.
“And people that know me, that that is the mother of all mothers. I’ll never do anyone wrong if you don’t do me wrong. Because I stand up for myself, now I’m made out to be the villain and I’m the bad guy, I’m this… and the person that started this whole saga, that is the person that is in the light, that looks like ‘oh what a fantastic guy, what a marvellous coach, what an example’.
“What example? You ain’t no example if you can call someone what I’ve been called. Then I lose it and I don’t care if I lose the respect from people because I stand up for myself but I never-ever change, and people mustn’t tell me that I’m better than that, that I must be the bigger person because I had been the bigger person all the time but you spit on, you get stumped on, but when you stand up for yourself you get respected that way.
“If I worry about what everyone else says or what everyone else thinks of me, I would have never achieved nothing in my life because I’m too worried about what ‘good people’ are talking about me, I couldn’t care less about what people say about me.
“I’m true to myself and I know who I am and I know what my purpose is. My purpose is to succeed for my team and I must be an example for my team. I ain’t going to stand for somebody calling me out and then they get to look like they are the heroes, they are the white knight with shining armour, not under my watch.”
