Royal AM might be in hot water with the Premier Soccer League (PSL) after communication earpieces went missing in their win over Sekhukhune United over the weekend.
According to sources, earpieces weren’t available to be used by the match-day referees, something that raised a fury to Sekhukhune coach Brandon Truter after the game on Saturday.
In the pre-match meeting that happens on the eve of every game, the league document says “electronic substitution boards must be tested and fully charged, electronic communication sets must be available and fully charged, number of balls should be 11, and the number of ball retrievers must be 10”.
According to the sources, the blame was thrown to the club media person Sthembiso Hlongwane, who formed part of the meeting on the eve of the game.
With Royal AM thinking that they may have escaped this, match commissioner Buyile Qubule noted it down on his match report and the club will likely face league consequences for being reckless.
All 32 clubs in the PSL are provided with the communication earpieces to match referees in their home games. The clubs have to ensure that they are fully charged and available to referees, it is the same with substitution boards.
But they were not available to the match officials at Chatsworth Stadium, with Sekhukhune feeling for a sense of injustice in this game, although they lost through clean goals.
But coach Truter was throwing his hands in the air several times, protesting to the match referees about the number of calls that he felt were against his team.
“I don’t want to comment on the referees, but at one stage they had earpieces when the game started and then they didn’t have earpieces,” said Truter.
“There was no communication between the officials, but everyone can see what is happening. The way things are going, everyone is complaining about referees and something should be done about this.”
However, when the game started, referee Abongile Tom and his officials weren’t wearing the earpieces until the match ended.
Truter was the second coach who felt wrath against Royal AM when it came to officiating.
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AmaZulu coach Romain Folz was left furious after his side were denied a legitimate goal against Royal AM last weekend at Moses Mabhida Stadium, leading to a scuffle that broke in the stadium’s reception afterwards.
It remains to be seen whether the PSL will bring charges to Royal AM for their failure to provide communication earpieces to match referees since this was their home game.
