One of the biggest critics of PSL referees in the current season, Kwanele Kopo has made a sudden U-turn and is full of praise for the man in the middle.
The Pretoria Caillies coach has been quoted plenty of times lambasting match officials for poor performances specifically during the Callies games.
But the former SuperSport United coach has applauded referee performances in their last two Motsepe Foundation Championship matches. This is as Callies collected four out of a possible six in their last encounters.
KWANELE KOPO IMPRESSED WITH PSL REFEREES
“Compliments to the match referee and his officials. Top top refereeing. I am saying it now for the second time in three games,” he said after Callies’ 2-1 win against Magesi on Sunday.
“Two games ago we drew against City Rovers and I complemented the referees. It was top top refereeing. We were unfortunate on Tuesday against Hungry Lions in Kimberly, some very bad decisions going against us. But I think against Magesi, it has been tops.
“The penalty, yes it was 50/50 but I think on the balance of play the referee was very good and when it is like this I think everybody becomes happy,” he said.
SCANDALS OFFICIATING NOT GOOD FOR THE LEAGUE
“There have been a lot of fights in the league, which doesn’t not augur well for sponsors or the PSL. But I think when games are like this and you have a referee that is in control, if he makes one mistake and it becomes a penalty, yah [t’s acceptable].
“The challenge is when there are repeated incidents in the game that really put you under pressure.
“But we are happy so far and we hope that as much as we are getting good refereeing, we can also get positive results in terms of our performance.”
Callies have now jumped to 13 position with 21 points from 20 games.
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