Victor Hlungwani urges PSL disciplinary action over dangerous tackles

Former referee Victor Hlungwani has called on the Premier Soccer League’s disciplinary committee to punish reckless challenges that go unpunished during matches, saying the absence of VAR has left players exposed to serious injuries.

With video assistant referees unavailable, match officials have faced criticism for failing to take action against dangerous tackles. Hlungwani believes the PSL disciplinary committee can review incidents after matches and impose sanctions where appropriate, as it has done previously.

He said stronger retrospective action would help protect players and improve discipline across the league.

“Yeah, I’m not a happy man, people are being cheated in the field week in, week out. So, VAR is not here to help us, what other mechanism do we have, it’s now to cry out with the PSL disciplinary committee that you have done it before,” Hlungwani said.

Hlungwani pointed to previous disciplinary decisions involving Vincent Kobola and Gaston Sirino as examples of how the PSL has acted after incidents that were not punished sufficiently during matches.

“You have suspended Vincent Kobola for five games, fined him R100 000 for kicking Sibusiso Vilakazi, you also did the same to Sirino [Gaston] who clapped Clayton Daniels and Dean Furman.

“You fined Sundowns R200 000 and then you suspended him for two games, that player did not receive a red card. So, now there are players here, you see Kwinika [Zitha] kicking Matthews [Tashreeq] on the spinal cord, nothing comes out.

“PSL DC has authority and can act on that unsporting behaviour or violent conduct because it’s bringing the league into disrepute. You see Nduli [Sihle] it’s even worse because the player is out, now Mokwena [Teboho] is out, many players are going out every week.”

His comments come amid concern over the number of players being sidelined after challenges that referees or match officials do not punish during games. Hlungwani highlighted incidents involving Tashreeq Matthews, Sihle Nduli and Teboho Mokwena, saying the injuries suffered by players made the need for action more urgent.

Hlungwani wants review panel decisions to carry greater weight

Hlungwani also said decisions made by the South African Football Association referees review panel should be linked more closely to the work of the PSL disciplinary committee.

The review panel can assess incidents after matches and determine whether a challenge should have resulted in a red card. Hlungwani believes those findings should lead to financial penalties or suspensions where appropriate.

“We’re crying out to you to say maybe if you can impose monetary value to those players on those challenges that are missed by ref because review will review them, the fine things are there with review and review will come up with a decision that they feel this decision should have been read,” he added.

He said there was precedent for such measures, with both FIFA and CAF having used similar approaches in the past. In his view, existing regulations give the relevant bodies the authority to intervene, leaving them to enforce those rules more consistently.

“What is good is that they’ve done it before, FIFA and CAF have done it before. So, the trend is there, the regulations cover them, now it’s for them to act and reduce this brutality that we see every week on the field of play.”

Hlungwani’s appeal is for retrospective disciplinary action to supplement refereeing decisions in a league where VAR is not available, and to deter challenges that could result in further serious injuries.