Bloemfontein Celtic and Free State Stars coaches Clinton Larsen and Steve Komphela have been fined by the PSL for their outbursts against referees.
Both coaches received R50,000 fines with their respective clubs getting R25,000 fines, all suspended for 12 months.
After Celtic were beaten 3-1 by Mamelodi Sundowns in the first round, the usually calm and collected Larsen confronted referee Daniel Volgraaf at half-time, saying:
“People are sending messages saying it was a clean challenge. A straight red card? This is really why people say when you play Chiefs, Pirates, Sundowns [there are dubious officiating decisions].”
Komphela lashed out at reigning Referee of the Season Victor Gomes after their 4-1 loss to SuperSport United on the opening day of the season.
“Terrible. I thought we were going to give a very good game up until the referee decided on his own to say ‘No, no, this time I’m spoiling everything’,” Komphela said during the press conference.
“I’ve never seen anything like this. Yellow cards flashed like they were going out of fashion. Without any disrespect to Cavin Johnson, they played well, I must congratulate them. But there was a stage where you could see the referee was just about to take the ball and throw it inside the net.”
“The guy was giving free-kicks, yellow cards, and I said ‘what’s going on with this guy, is he out of his mind? And clearly before the red card was given, I said to the bench we won’t finish this match, we will play with someone getting a red card.”
“With the referee like this, who needs an opponent?”
“This guy is the referee of the season if I’m not mistaken. It’s a disgrace whoever puts him there. If this is the best that comes out of South Africa, the country has no quality. This is a disgrace, I’m not insulting those who made the choice, but this guy is not doing justice to the choice they made.”