PSL prosecutor to decide whether to charge anyone for the Downs vs Supersport warm-up debacle

The Premier Soccer League (PSL) have referred details of the unseemly impasse between Mamelodi Sundowns and SuperSport United‚ that preceded Sunday’s MTN8 quarter-final at Loftus Versfeld‚ to their prosecutor for possible further action.

“He is an independent body and will make a decision on whether to take any further action and charge anyone or not‚” explained the league’s spokesman Luxolo September on Tuesday.

A charge of bringing the game into disrepute is a possibility for Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane after he stubbornly refused to follow the rules on which side his team had to warm-up before the game‚ and on which bench he had to sit on during the encounter.

Mosimane later apologised to rival coach Stuart Baxter and said he had been thrown by a change of routine at the venue.

“We always sit on the right hand of the halfway line and warm-up on that side too. The home side has to sit on the right. I’m not comfortable sitting on the left.

 “If I come to your house and sit on the chair that you always used to watch TV‚ will you be happy?” he asked.

 “I was not happy”.

“But I was told that if I don’t sit on the left‚ I would forfeit the match. I did not want that to happen. I was a little bit arrogant‚” a contrite Mosimane said later.

According to PSL rules‚ teams must warm-up and sit on the bench closest to where their change room is.

 Sundowns had a change room at Loftus to left of SuperSport.

Aware of the rule‚ SuperSport refused to budge and so both sides warmed-up on the same side of the field ahead of the match in a childish stand off.

“It was a fleck of shame on South African football that we can have things like that happen‚” said Baxter.

 “It was a parody and it meant our warm up was compromised. We could have asked to win the match by forfeit but I wasn’t going for a walkover. That’s not our style.”

Sundowns won the match 3-1 and proceed to a semifinal date with Chippa United.