‘A huge scandal’, AmaZulu coach slams officials after Pirates loss

AmaZulu coach Pablo Franco was unhappy with officiating during the loss to Orlando Pirates in the Nedbank Cup quarterfinals in Durban on Saturday night.

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Pirates came back from a goal down to beat AmaZulu 4-2 at a packed Moses Mabhida Stadium, with Kabelo Dlamini and Patrick Maswanganyi netting a brace each, while Pule Ektsein and Taariq Fielies scored the goals for Usuthu.

Speaking after the game, Franco Martin insinuated that the match officials were biased towards the Buccaneers.

“Do you want me to talk about football or what really decided this game? I’m asking you, football or what really decided this game? This is the problem we’re having here that the games are decided by some people who aren’t players,” Franco told SuperSport TV after the game.

“Again, a scandal, a huge scandal, we played against the best team in competitions and we reached the quarterfinals of the Nedbank Cup [for the first time] after 12 years. After 15 minutes where they dominated us, we balanced, we took the lead.

“We won the first half, even if the scoreboard says something different, we won it. And in the second half, it was an open game, nice game, nice fight, we got back to 2-2, we hit the crossbar, we could have won the game from there.

“But in the end with this score, it’s as if they won in a fair way and it’s not true, it’s something happening the whole season with AmaZulu, the results are decided by someone else, who thinks we don’t have family, that we don’t work very hard.”

Pirates were awarded a penalty just before the half-time break after the Fielies was adjudged to have fouled Makhehleni Makhaula inside the box, but Franco Martin doesn’t believe that it was a penalty.

“We could have received a red card, which was crazy, the normal thing is we could normally control ourselves but my team, after such scandal, we came back into the pitch with controlled emotions.

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“We played with discipline and quality and okay we didn’t get the result, when you play against these circumstances, it’s a pity but we’re now used to it, you know, we know what we can expect when we playing these kind of opponents. It’s a shame for the country.”