A football game involving Malandela Mighty Heroes and DRA FC turned into a boxing match at the Alexandra Stadium.
This after chaos broke out during the Alexandra Northrand Local Football Association Promotional League over whose soccer balls should be used during the game. DRA, being the home side, apparently failed to bring their own soccer balls to the game and each time the ball was kicked outside the stadium and into residential houses, Mighty Heroes had to provide the replacement balls.
This eventually incensed Mighty Heroes coach Buti Phiri, father of Alexandra player Lebogang Phiri, who then refused to hand over any more balls, insisting that DRA produce their own balls as the home side.
A DRA player then started to search Heroes’ bags for a ball and all hell broke loose with players and their technical staff from both sides getting into a scuffle. When everything calmed down, referee Donald Mphaki sent off the keeper and ordered Phiri to leave the technical area.
In an interview with Alex News, Mphaki said he had ordered Phiri to leave the technical area because he felt Phiri was buying time by refusing to provide soccer balls for a match which his team was leading 1–0. His keeper was also ordered to leave for having left his goal posts to partake in the fights.
“This was all a time wasting tactic from coach seeing that he was leading and unfortunately it all resulted in the chaos,” Mphaki said.
When play finally resumed, Mighty Heroes were a man down, and DRA took advantage of the situation and scored an equaliser with the two teams sharing the spoils in the top-of-the-table clash.
The team that wins this league is automatically promoted to the South African Football Association League, a fourth-tier league which marks the start of their journey to the Premier Soccer League. Mighty Heroes currently leads the pack with DRA in second place.
