Ncobo Discusses Hlanti Incident & Controversial SSU Penalty

Former FIFA referee Ace Ncobo has discussed the controversial incidents of the last DStv Premiership round, including Abdelmounaim Boutouil’s foul, S’fiso Hlanti’s yellow card and SuperSport United’s penalty.

Ncobo, who now works as General Manager of the PSL, has once again assessed the major talking points and only pointed out one right call by the match officials.

On Saturday, Kaizer Chiefs beat AmaZulu 3-0 to celebrate their first league victory of the season. But there was an incident between Hlanti and Wayde Jooste, where many questioned whether the Chiefs left-back should’ve received a red card instead of yellow – Ncobo, though, agreed with the referee.

“When the referee sees hand to the face, we already know that a yellow card must come out,” he explained on SuperSport’s Extra-Time.

“If the referee deems it that the force was not excessive and the part of the arm that was moved was more the hand than the elbow, that’s where the yellow card will come in.

“It looks ugly, it looks like he’s hitting the player… but let’s first celebrate the fact that ‘hand to the face’ [means] yellow card, we’re sure that we’re going to get that, so that we then allow space for referees to gage the force of the impact and then decide whether to go for yellow or red.

“I’d agree with the referee in that instance that yellow card was the appropriate sanction.”

The big talking point of Sunday came when the match official pointed to the penalty spot for an alleged foul from Stellenbosch FC goalkeeper Oscarine Masuluke on Terrence Dzvukamanja – this time, however, the ref got it wrong, according to Ncobo.

“You look at this decision and try to find what made the referee take that decision and when you can’t find it you can’t find it,” Ncobo stated.

“He looks very confident, the goalkeeper is as flummoxed as I am sitting here, and I looked at it from several angles and we can see here we’ve got two players – the goalkeeper and the striker are both jumping for the ball, both of them miss the ball, it goes past them but because they are high up from the round, obviously the force of gravity is going to pull them back down.

“[The touch on the head] would not be deemed a foul, they both, because they come from high up, will stumble to the ground, so I tried to look for a foul there, I couldn’t find one.

“I disagree with that decision of the referee.”

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Finally, earlier in the week, Boutouil got his fourth yellow card of the season for a foul on Sakhile Hlongwa in Mamelodi Sundowns’ 1-0 win at Richards Bay, which means he’s suspended for the next match. Ncobo, though, argued it should’ve been a red card instead.

“I don’t think the referee will be too pleased with himself here. The assistant referee should’ve assisted the referee in making the correct decision,” he argued.

“I think the referee was caught off-pace there, he gave the yellow but I’m sure when he looked at it again, he would’ve seen that there was excessive force used there.

“Despite the fact that the ball had already gone outside, he should’ve received a sterner sanction, which in my view should’ve been a dismissal with a red card.”