VANDERBIJLPARK.- It was a walkover after a walkover at the Cecil Oldridge Park Stadium in Vanderbijlpark when the Safa Sedibeng SAB League and Super League teams played over the weekend.
The much anticipated SAB League match between Real Barcelona and Vaal Manchester FC failed to materialise due to the playing conditions. The visitors, in this case, Vaal Manchester FC in conjunction with the match officials saw it improper for the SAB League official league match to play in a field that was not marked.
There were no lines and the according to SAFA uniform rules, the home team, which in this case was Real Barcelona FC should have made sure that the field was marked. This is not the first time that the home team has found itself in this kind of situation.
This kick-off was supposed to be at 11:00.
To date, Real Barcelona FC used to play their home league matches at Bophelong Stadium but the venue has been closed to be upgraded by the municipality. All the Bophelong teams now either play their league matches at Cecil Oldrige Park or Boipatong Stadium.
As if this was not enough, another much anticipated Super League match between Still Water FC and Junior Swallows didn’t materialise due to the same problem. Still Water FC refused to play claiming that they won’t play on the field that was not marked. The club’s officials told Sedibeng Ster Sport that in the previous matches their team lost unfairly as the referee awarded the opponents penalties even though the incident happened outside the box because there were no lines.
“I’m not going to play because the last time I played here the referee awarded our opponent a penalty and the incident had happened outside the penalty box. But I don’t blame him because there were no lines,” said the club official.
