City boss slams referee after Wits defeat

John Comitis could find himself in hot water with the Premier Soccer League after criticising the referee following Cape Town City’s loss to Bidvest Wits on Tuesday night.

This was after the referee awarded a penalty to Wits in the seventh minute after City goalkeeper Peter Leeuwenburgh was adjudged to have fouled striker Simon Murray.

Murray stepped up and converted the resulted penalty.

“I am livid,” said Comitis after the game.

“This can’t go on any longer; something has to be done about it. After winning the MTN8, we charged supporters just R10 entry fee – and they came in their numbers. We had about 12,000 people on a cold, chilly Cape Town evening and the referee comes along to spoil it all.

“It was clearly no penalty, anybody could see that, but the referee didn’t.

“The PSL are always going on about Benni’s comments about referees in South Africa, but what else can he do when we regularly get poor decisions like that?”

Meanwhile, City coach Benni McCarthy took the blame for his team’s defeat to Wits.

The City coach made eight changes to the team that started the MTN8 final against SuperSport United last Saturday – and the decision had an obvious effect on the team’s fluency.

McCarthy commented: “For me, I will probably have to look in the mirror because changing the team completely backfired on me. Maybe I was a bit naïve to make so many changes and expect the same level of performance.

“In hindsight, perhaps I should have trusted my gut and played with more or less the same team as in the cup final.”

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