A club official has made a surprising comment about match officials after a league clash this past weekend.
Having returned to professional football in December after being appointed as the football manager at Pretoria Callies, former Mamelodi Sundowns' general manager Peter Koutroulis has played a big role in helping the team to move up the log.
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When he joined the club, Callies had been at the bottom of the Motsepe Foundation Championship log after 12 matches.
Now, the team is currently sitting in ninth place on the standings after 22 matches and Koutroulis has thanked the referees for how they officiated in their most recent match on Sunday, against Black Leopards, which they won 2-1.
Prior to Koutroulis' arrival at Callies, the club's head coach Kwanele Kopo had been the biggest critic of the match officials although he has since made a U-turn and has been full of praise for them these days with the team winning.
"I would like to say thank you to all the referees who have officiated in the matches for Pretoria Callies (since my arrival at the club). I don't want to criticize them when they are doing well. On Sunday, we played Black Leopards in Venda and the referee who officiated in the match was the best. In fact, all of them (including the assistants) were very good," said Koutroulis, speaking exclusively to the Siya crew.
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"I hear stories with people criticizing referees and I feel they should be complemented when they do well. Yes, referees do make mistakes at times and that's because they are human beings too. Like in the game for AmaZulu and Royal AM, there had been complaints and the word 'bribe' was mentioned, but I would like to sing a different tune. In this league, the most difficult league because NFD (Motsepe Foundation Championship) is the most difficult league, I haven't encountered any refereeing problems. I congratulated them (the match officials) because they were good and tried to be 50/50 with their decisions and I'm really happy," he said.
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