This
weekend South African fans had a number of Absa Premier League (PSL) games lined
up including Platinum Stars against Chippa United, Moroka Swallows against
Kaizer Chiefs, and later in, Orlando Pirates played an important CAF Champions
League match against TP Mazembe.
This
week, I will be focusing on an incident (or incidents, rather) that happened in
the PSL match that took place in Dobsonville between The Birds and Amakhosi.
With
about 25 minutes having been played, The Birds were leading 1-0 when the
referee, Buyile Gqubule, awarded Moroka Swallows a penalty for a foul by Kaizer
Chiefs goalkeeper, Itumeleng Khune on Moroka Swallows' attacker, Lerato
Chabangu.
I
have to admit that from the television replays, I was not as convinced as the
commentators were that there was indeed contact from Khune's trailing leg. But
as Paul Dirkin once said: "Although television can give you 15 different
angles, the only angle they can’t show is the referee’s." I will have to give the benefit of the doubt
to referee Gqubule for seeing that incident.
From
the ensuing penalty kick, Swallow's leading goalscorer, Katlego Mashego,
scored. In other words, the ball entered the goal. However, referee, Gqubule, then proceeded to
order a retake for an encroachment.
According to the Laws, a player is guilty of encroachment if he/she is
not located "at least 9.15m (10 yds) from the penalty mark". Law 14 also states: "If the referee
gives the signal for a penalty kick to be taken and (before the ball is in
play) a team-mate of the player taking the kick infringes the Laws of the Game,
the referee allows the kick to be taken.
If the ball enters the goal, the kick is retaken."
Mashego
then scored the resultant penalty kick retake.
However, this time, a player from the attacking team (Swallows in this
case) as well as from the defending team were guilty of encroachment. I will refer to Law 14 again, which says:
"If the referee gives the signal for a penalty kick to be taken and,
before the ball is in play, a player of both the defending team and the
attacking team infringe the Laws of the Game, the kick is retaken." Simple
and clear. The referee was correct to
order a retake of the penalty kick.
The
third penalty kick was then saved by the Kaizer Chiefs goalkeeper leaving the
Swallows players and their technical team frustrated.
A
look at the third penalty kick will show us that the Kaizer Chiefs keeper moved
off his line before the kick was taken.
Law 14 states: "The defending goalkeeper must remain on his goal
line, facing the kicker, between the goalposts until the ball is
kicked." The Laws also clearly say
that if the goalkeeper infringes the Laws of the Game and the ball does not
enter the goal, as in this case, the kick is retaken.
Without
even making use of replays, it was clear to me that Khune had moved off his
line for at least two of the three penalty kicks, with the linesman failing to
flag for this offence on all occasions.
Law 6 tells us that it is the duty of the assistant referee at penalty
kicks to indicate whether the goalkeeper moves off the goal line before the
ball is kicked. The assistant referee failed in this regard. A third retake (thus fourth penalty kick)
should have been given by the referee had his assistant seen and indicated the
infringement. I can understand why the Swallows coach felt
so aggrieved after the match.
The
game continued without another big talking point. But with Moroka Swallows
fighting for a Top 8 finish and teams such as Platinum Stars and Orlando
Pirates still in with small chance of winning the league title, such decisions
could prove vital come May.
And
that's the final whistle.
By Thomas Monyepao
You
can find me on twitter @Tom_18Yards
Twitter: @diskioff [www.twitter.com/diskioff]
