Former FIFA referee Ace Ncobo has insisted Gabadinho Mhango should’ve been sent off in the first minute of the MTN8 final against Orlando Pirates.
Mhango fouled Nkosinathi Sibisi in the very first minute of the Saturday’s MTN8 final, with the incident resulting in the Pirates defender having to be substituted.
Ncobo insisted match official Luxolo Badi should have giving Mhango his marching orders despite the foul being in the first minute of the match.
“Let’s start with saying Luxolo Badi [is] one of our top referees,” he explained on SuperSport’s Extra Time.
“Brilliant, brilliant cup final. It’s not easy to handle cup finals, but I think there he let himself down.
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“He perhaps thought still a few seconds into the game that whatever action I take now will define the rest of the 90 minutes, the rest of the game.
“That was a red card offence. The first tackle, that was a red-card offence. When we look at how the opposition player goes into that tackle – remember that “excessive force” is what determines the red card.
“It does not qualify as a “reckless tackle”, which would have accrued a yellow. The excessive force. Look at how he goes in there, studs up. He knows he’s not going for the ball.
“There is no other situation where the referee wouldn’t give a red card. Had that happened in 73rd or 80th minute, the referee would’ve surely shown a red card. The fact that it took place in the first few seconds of the game becomes irrelevant, that should’ve been a red card.
“It’s ‘serious foul-play’, that’s how we define it in the laws of the game. In incidents like that you are not managing the game. You look at the incident, ‘serious foul-play’, you hand out the red card. That helps you as a referee from the onset to make a statement.”
When asked whether neutrals would’ve have said that Badi had “killed the game” Ncobo insisted it would not have been the referee’s fault.
“Who killed it? The player, not the referee, the player who went in like that,” he added.
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