Manqoba Mngqithi says he has observed a trend of winding down the clock in the DStv Premiership and has also fingered match officials for not “doing anything about it”.
The Mamelodi Sundowns co-head coach made these comments at the back of his side’s 1-0 win over Chippa United on Wednesday night.
Peter Shalulile scored the winner in stoppage time to net his fifth of the season and fire Downs to the top of the table.
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“I don’t know if we can see what is happening in the PSL right now,” Mngqithi lamented.
“Time-wasting is playing a big role and if we can check the time at which we are playing in 90 minutes. We are averaging 43 minutes each half where the ball is in play.
“That for me is a course for concern and our officials seem to not be doing anything about it. Had I drawn or lost this match and then complained about time, people would look at it differently,” he added.
To his credit, the match did have a number of stoppages where goalkeeper Llyod Kazapua went down a couple of times in the second half while Mothobi Mvala had a head collision with Godspower Ighodaro in the opening stanza.
“If we look at how many stoppages we had with their goalkeepers and with all the substitutions made, and the referee only adds four minutes? This is out of order and if this thing is not addressed, the thing of time-wasting in the PSL will ruin our game,” said Mngqithi.
The former Golden Arrows mentor said if this is allowed to continue, it might have a ripple effect on the performances of Bafana Bafana and junior national teams.
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“It is something that everybody should look into because we cannot copy bad habits and then we ask ourselves why we are not doing well at international level.
“If you look at how tired Chippa were in the first half, but if you were to count how many minutes the ball was in play, you would realize that we are cheating our football. And this has an effect on international football because we can’t sustain,” said Mngqithi.
