Another PSL referee gets suspended after a blunder involving Mamelodi Sundowns this season.
The 2023/2024 season has seen a number of questionable referee calls in matches involving the league champions, Sundowns, which led to referees getting punished.
Earlier this season, Loxolo Badi was suspended after denying Kaizer Chiefs two clear penalties during the second leg of the MTN8 semifinal against Sundowns, which was some of the incidents that the Brazilians have benefited from bad officiating this season.
Despite the calls for officials to do better, Sundowns continues to benefit.
As the experienced FIFA and SAFA officials, Jelly Chavani is suspended after a poor call in favour of Sundowns.
During the Nedbank Cup semi-final clash between Sundowns and Stellenbosch FC at the Danie Craven Stadium, Chavani chose not to give Divine Lunga a red card during the Nedbank Cup semi-final against Stellenbosch, even though Lunga had already received a yellow card and made a bad tackle on Devin Titus.Â
This allowed Sundowns to quickly replace Lunga with another player while the referee was distracted by an injured assistant referee.
This decision might have changed the outcome of the game, which Sundowns won 2-1 and advanced to the final.
According to City Press, the SAFA review felt that Chavani got the call wrong and should have sent Lunga off, and as such, they suspended him.
 “Yes, a suspension has been handed out, and we can confirm that as Safa. Some of our match officials have been suspended, and we will only see some of them at the start of the new season,” SAFA said.
“All of them will be part of the pre-season workshop in July where they’ll go over the amendments of the laws of the game, prepare for next season, and reflect on the previous season.”
The Limpopo-born referee is said to be suspended for a month and is likely to return to action next season.