Former FIFA and SAFA match official Victor Hlungwani reacts on Stellenbosch FC defender Siviwe Nkwali’s red card against Kaizer Chiefs this past Sunday.
During the tightly contested match that ended 2-0, Chiefs received a major boost in the match in the 13th minute.
Nkwali tackled Mduduzi Shabalala, who was through on goal leaving referee on the day Eugene Mdluli had no choice but to send him off for deny Shabalala an obvious goalscoring opportunity.
Nkwali’s sending-off divided the South African football fraternity with many feeling the call to send him off was too harsh as defenders around him had opportunities to recover.
However, Hlungwani stated that Mdluli made the right call. During an SABC Sport show, Soccerzone, this past Monday, the principal felt that Mdluli’s call was covered by DOSO(Denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity) rule and as such he was right to send him off.
“He did what we call DOSO(Denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity) by committing an offence that is punishable by a free kick,” Victor Hlungwani stated on Soccerzone.
“You can see when you look at DOSO elements, direction of play it is towards goals, distance [to goals] very close, numbers and locations of defenders they are behind [and] one is even far, likelihood of the player[Shabalala] gaining control of the ball is there.
“So therefore, all the DOSO elements have [been] successfully completed, and red card will come out.
“So correct decision by Mdluli to give the red card after all the FIFA considerations for a red card have been completed.
“Here as the first red card of the season we say, look at the offence committed with the hand, so this is holding an opponent who is running, and there was an impact.
“So correct decision by Mdluli to give a red card.”
Chiefs attacking middlefielder Nkosingiphile Ngcobo went on to bury the resulting free kick before a late penalty strike from Glody Lilepo sealed all three points for Amakhosi.