Former FIFA referee Ace Ncobo has insisted that the penalty Orlando Pirates received in the Nedbank Cup quarter-final against AmaZulu was correctly given.
AmaZulu’s players and especially coach Pabla Franco Martin, were enraged with the decision when Taariq Fielies was adjudged to have fouled Makheleni Makhaula inside the box just before the break.
Patrick Maswanganyi stepped up and converted the spot-kick to level matters, with the Buccaneers running away with the game late in the second half.
After the match, Martin called the decision a “scandal” but Ncobo insisted that referee Masixole Bambiso made the right call.
“The referee positioned himself nicely, he’s looked at it and his focus was there at that level, on the bodies. Whereas if you look down on the feet there is nothing that takes place there,” he said on Extra-Time.
“What the referee is really focussing on is holding an opponent. When you hold an opponent, the end result is that you dispossess an opponent and that’s what gives you an infringement.
“The referee looks at the infringement, tests it against the laws of the game and if there is holding the referee will blow his whistle.
“We did not speak about a push, the infringement is holding. That’s where the critical differentiation is – holding an opponent and that’s what the law says.
“It’s a penalty.”
