Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro was not happy with the officiating in his side’s match against Mamelodi Sundowns, but bit his tongue to not say anything that could get him into trouble.
The Spaniard insisted the profession of refereeing “is very difficult” and one he himself would not be keen to do in the football business.
Riveiro was visibly upset with the referee Masixole Bambiso and was seen approaching the match officials after the final whistle of his side’s 1-0 defeat to Sundowns that saw several controversial calls.
“It was an emotional game, Pirates made mistakes, Sundowns made mistakes and somebody else as well, I guess,” he said.
“But like I said before, we are coaches, you want us to talk about every problem and it’s your role to do it, it’s not us. Sorry.
“I said many times that being a referee is going to be the last thing that I’m going to do in this business, it’s not for me. It’s so, so difficult. That’s why you really need to be prepared.
“Today was a really intense game and I guess it was not easy for the match official. But I’m sure you like to write a lot and I’m sure you have your own opinions and sometimes you can do it you can share your opinion about anything else than who is playing and who is not.
“But it’s not the role of the coach in any club to talk about the referees and the role of referees.”
Riveiro was then asked whether he thinks the introduction of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) is needed in South Africa to improve the officiating, but explained that it’s not as simple as implementing VAR.
“Like I said before it’s so difficult to be a referee,” he comntinued.
“You really need to be prepared. When the game is again Pirates vs Sundowns, you cannot expect an easy game – it’s very simple. The you have to be prepared for that game.
“Now, it’s your decision to analyse. If you want to do it, it could be interesting.
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“If the game was well-managed, because VA refereeing is an art, it’s very difficult, it’s not only applying the rules, it’s much more difficult than that.
“It’s understand what is one team doing, what is the other team doing to counteract and then try to be fair.
“We’re coming from a World Cup, just one or one-and-a-half months ago where we all have the chance to see extra-time of 14-15 minutes, am I right or wrong? But we want to do the things different?
“I’m not talking about decisions on the field, penalties or [similar] because like I said it’s so difficult but there are things in the refereeing which are easy, very easy.”
