VAR can ease pressure on referees, says Chiefs’ Baxter 

Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter believes the introduction of VAR in the DStv Premiership could help take the pressure off fumbling referees.

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Baxter was answering a question on the matter after the referees in the recent Soweto derby got some decisions wrong. 

Chief among those decisions was allowing the Orlando Pirates goal to stand besides the fact that Kwame Peprah was offside when he scored it. There was also a wrong offside call in the first half that denied Amakhosi a clear scoring chance. 

“That (the VAR) will help take the pressure off them,” said Baxter. “It will help them know that if there’s a big call, it won’t be wrong. That will give them confidence and hopefully that will raise the standard. 

“It could have been a completely different game. Without blasting all referees, I’m trying to give an objective opinion on why VAR should be introduced,” added Baxter. 

While Amakhosi had some decisions unfairly go against them, they managed to get a 2-1 win. But it was a different story for Mamelodi Sundowns who got the wrong end of the stick. 

Masandawana lost 2-1 to Maritzburg United at Harry Gwala Stadium on Saturday with both the home side’s goals resulting from wrong refereeing calls. 

In the first goal, Alfred Ndengane clearly climbed on top of Thapelo Morena for his header. 

For the second, the referee gave a penalty after he felt Kennedy Mweene had fouled Amadou Soukouna. Replays showed that Mweene had not in fact touched the Blue Hearts’ striker. 

Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi was livid after the game, saying the referees were turning the Premier Soccer League into a banana league. 

“The only sad thing is that we have lost our second match now and both matches that we lost were because of dubious decisions,” said Mngqithi.  

“The first loss to AmaZulu was a clear offside and this loss to Maritzburg, Ndengane climbed on top of Thapelo for the first goal and that was in the view of the referee, it is not like he was impeded… he could see what was happening in front of him. From there, they had the penalty, the player dived even before Kennedy Mweene made that tackle and it resulted in a penalty.

“You then ask yourself – should we lose matches because of the decisions of the referee or do we lose matches because we are not doing what we are supposed to do?”