Now a member of the Caf and Fifa refereeing panels, he has officiated in three Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, in Tunisia (2004), Egypt (2006) and Ghana last year. A fourth official at the 2006 World Cup, he held centre stage in the World Cup qualifier between Egypt and Algeria at the Cairo Stadium last Saturday.
Do you think the match should have been postponed, given that some players from Algeria were injured after Egyptian youths stoned their bus on arrival in Cairo?
That decision was not ours. We take the cue from Fifa. There were Fifa officials who were in contact with HQ in Zurich. The Algerians would have been within their rights to request a postponement. We were just told that we needed to proceed.
The match was clearly not played in a conducive climate, what with the open animosity. As a referee, how do you handle the situation?
We must stay calm when all hell breaks loose around us. If everybody has a hot head, we need to be cool so we are able to exercise our best judgment. We get trained for this.
Your impression of the game?
I have never experienced so much passion for a soccer match, whether negative or positive energy.
Without sounding insulting, it almost makes the big matches in SA look like Sunday tea and biscuits ...
I don't want to sound offensive to my country, I believe we play a good, hard and emotional brand of football here. But the rivalry, passion and tension of this game blew me away.
Was there any intimidation of the match officials?
None whatsoever. At no point did we feel under undue pressure, threatened or unsafe. Both teams were very respectful towards the officials.
The Algerian and Egyptian media were at each other's throats, hacking into one another's websites ...
The Egyptian Football Association website had to close for one day because somebody hacked into it. We don't know who did it, but it shows the amount of animosity. But it was comforting to know that both teams were at peace with our officiating. Caf and Fifa were very happy with our performance. At the end of the day those are the people who decide whether we go to the World Cup or not.
The assistant referees were also South African. How did it feel to be South Africans in that environment?
Yes, Enoch Molefe and Toko Malebo were running the line and Ebrahim Abdul was the fourth official. It was a proud moment. And (fellow South African) Daniel Bennett was the referee for the first leg in Algiers. It shows the amount of trust and confidence Caf and Fifa have in SA match officials.
What was the relationship like with your assistants in that 90 minutes?
It made it so much easier because you know one another's mannerisms and body language. I had no doubt in my mind that whatever flag they would raise would be the right flag. When I looked at the bench I knew Abdul had things under control as well. In a match like that there is so much at stake and you don't need extra burdens. We don't do this for our own gain. When we walk onto the field we do so as very proud South Africans and we work with the idea of not letting our country down.
How do you rate your chances of making the 2010 World Cup panel when it is announced on January 26?
We have done our bit. It is now up to everybody to decide if we are good enough. We are very realistic about our chances.
Were you surprised when Algeria won the playoff 1-0 on Wednesday night?
This is football, my man. One can never predict the outcome of a match. Nobody would have predicted the 2-0 outcome (to Egypt) that forced the playoff on neutral soil in Sudan.
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