Cardoso hints at refereeing injustice in Sundowns & Arrows clash

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach, Miguel Cardoso, has hinted at refereeing injustice in their 1-1 draw against Golden Arrows in the Betway Premiership.

Abafana Bes’thende, under the new leadership of former Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi, ended Masandawa’s four-match winning streak in the league.

Both goals in the match came in the first half, with the KZN side, Arrows, taking the lead through Keenan Phillips’ goal before Lucas Ribeiro Costa equalised for Sundowns.

A visibly upset Cardoso stated after the match that if things were fair, they should have won. He believes they scored legitimate goals that did not count. He understably meant Peter Shalulile’s strike, which was denied by the referee, giving a foul to the home side.

CARDOSO – ‘WE SAW THINGS I DON’T WANT TO SPEAK ABOUT’

“I think it was more than fair that we get the three points. I think we scored more than enough goals to win the match as it was clear for everybody for sure,” said Cardoso.

“So, we saw two teams, working hard, and we saw one team that was not on the level of the game. I think it’s important to understand that.

“The level of the league like this should also have the [top referees] level on all the teams. Unfortunately, we saw things that I don’t even want to speak about.

“It’s the second game where…Congratulations to my players. They had a good game and a very good second half in terms of battling for the result. Unfortunately we could not get it.

“Let’s move forward in order to be as best as possible in our next matches.”

Cardoso also emphasised the importance of adhering to the rules of the game for fairness.

“We just want to play games as fair as they should be and according to the rules of the game and that everybody follows the rules of the game,” he added. 

“That’s just what we want. Let us play football.”

When asked whether he was hinting at poor officiating, he said, “No, I’m just speaking, whatever. I’m just speaking.”

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