By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
South African Football Association (SAFA) have suspended match official Luxolo Badi following his controversial decision not to award Kaizer Chiefs a penalty in their MTN8 semi-final clash against Mamelodi Sundowns.
In the game, which ended in a 2-1 win in favour of Sundowns, who made it to the final after a 3-2 aggregate victory and Chiefs felt they were undone by the match officials.
In the second-half, Teboho Mokoena pulled Edson Castillo down in the box, while Thapelo Maseko, later on, hacked Mduduzi Mdantsane in the area.
However, Badi waved play-on in both incidents amid calls by Chiefs for a penalty. Safa, through the head of referee Abdul Ebrahim said the referee has put into rehabilitation programme for four weeks.
“It now means the technical committee will assign instructors to work with the referee over the next few weeks, both on physical and technical aspects.”
“Once four weeks is completed, they will send the report to my office, to highlight what he has gone through and when he will be ready to return, said Ebrahim.”
Ebrahim added that the rehab will commence on Tuesday.”
Badi is not new to controversy; in March, he was suspended alongside Sumukele Jali for disallowing a legit AmaZulu goal in the match against Royal AM.
PSL supporters have been calling for the video assistant referee (VAR) to be implemented in the league to avoid such incompetent and substandard officiating to continue unabated.