PSL prosecutor to decide on action for Sundowns vs SuperSport warm-up debacle

30 August 2016 - 15:57 By Mark Gleeson

The Premier Soccer League (PSL) have referred details of the unseemly impasse between Mamelodi Sundowns and SuperSport United‚ that preceded Sunday’s MTN8 quarter-final at Loftus Versfeld‚ to their prosecutor for possible further action. “He is an independent body and will make a decision on whether to take any further action and charge anyone or not‚” explained the league’s spokesman Luxolo September on Tuesday.A charge of bringing the game into disrepute is a possibility for Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane after he stubbornly refused to follow the rules on which side his team had to warm-up before the game‚ and on which bench he had to sit on during the encounter. Mosimane later apologised to rival coach Stuart Baxter and said he had been thrown by a change of routine at the venue.“We always sit on the right hand of the halfway line and warm-up on that side too. The home side has to sit on the right. I’m not comfortable sitting on the left.“If I come to your house and sit on the chair that you always used to watch TV‚ will you be happy?” he asked.“I was not happy”.“But I was told that if I don’t sit on the left‚ I would forfeit the match. I did not want that to happen. I was a little bit arrogant‚” a contrite Mosimane said later. According to PSL rules‚ teams must warm-up and sit on the bench closest to where their change room is.Sundowns had a change room at Loftus to left of SuperSport.Aware of the rule‚ SuperSport refused to budge and so both sides warmed-up on the same side of the field ahead of the match in a childish stand off.“It was a fleck of shame on South African football that we can have things like that happen‚” said Baxter.“It was a parody and it meant our warm up was compromised. We could have asked to win the match by forfeit but I wasn't going for a walkover. That’s not our style.”Sundowns won the match 3-1 and proceed to a semifinal date with Chippa United. - TMG Digital..

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