After another round of Betway Premiership matches riddled with errant refereeing decisions, Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso and his Golden Arrows counterpart Manqoba Mngqithi agreed implementation of video assistant referee (VAR) cannot wait for next season.
On Wednesday, sports, arts and culture minister Gayton McKenzie said VAR will be introduced in the 2026-27 season. Cardoso and Mngqithi said it is urgent the technology comes earlier because there are too many wrong decisions by referees.
There were two incidents in which referee Siyabulela Qunta and his assistants made glaring errors in Sundowns’ 2-1 Betway Premiership win against and Arrows at Loftus on Wednesday night.
In the 64th minute, Downs were denied a legitimate goal when Iqraam Rayners’s strike, which could have given them a 3-0 lead, was disallowed for offside but replays showed the striker was onside.
Later, an Arrows cross looked to hit the face of Khuliso Mudau but Qunta pointed to the spot for handball and Junior Dion sent Ronwen Williams the wrong way, so the match ended 2-1.
In Polokwane, referee Luxolo Badi did not award Orlando Pirates a penalty after the ball hit the outstretched hand of Polokwane City’s Tlou Nkwe in Bucs’ 2-1 win.
While the decisions did not alter the outcomes of the two big matches in the title race, the scorelines in both games mattered as Pirates, level on 44 points from 19 matches with Sundowns, remained top of the Premiership on goal difference by a one-goal margin (+23 to +22) .
“The game is becoming too dynamic for referees,” Mngqithi said, adding he saw Qunta and his assistant consulting when they disallowed Rayners’s goal.
“In this match, I saw a sniff of VAR that I don’t know. The truth is when there is an offside, the linesman raises the flag but I didn’t see the flag. I saw negotiations and then there is no offside.
“I am not saying it was offside or not. I expect the right thing to happen in a football match because every week we have been talking about the topic.
“We are running one of the biggest leagues on the continent and we should understand the investment that is put in by the clubs, and it should be worth accepting the result.”
Mngqithi said he has stopped blaming referees because they need technological assistance.
“We should be able to say, ‘at least VAR checked and they made a mistake’. But when you see mistakes regularly it is not right.
“I have moved away from blaming referees for their mistakes. I have realised they are human beings and most of the time the complaints we have as coaches and club administrators are based on the benefit of the second opinion we have from the stands or somewhere.
“I look at the monitor and say ‘this was offside’ and I am able to make noise, but the reality is when it happens in real time sometimes you don’t see it.
“The incident of Mudau, I will not say it was a handball or not but these things are happening every week. I don’t have a problem with [VAR coming] next season, but the reality is somebody would have been relegated or someone might lose the championship because of the wrong decisions.”
Cardoso agreed that there are too many officiating errors in the league.
“I am not speaking about referees but the situations. I am not addressing the referees but the many situations we feel systematically. Referees have emotions and they make mistakes,” Downs’s coach said.
“This is something in the game that must be addressed collectively. All the [questionable officiating] situations came against us [on Wednesday] and the referee of our match would be happy if there was VAR to help him make the correct decisions.
“With the penalty he gave, you will see there was an offside. It’s too many mistakes and I think VAR in South Africa should be a reality as soon as possible.”
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