Khoza: I Have No Control On Referees Betting

PSL chairman Irvin Khoza has called on SAFA to ensure that referees are not involved in match-betting, following the league’s decision to ban players from betting on matches.

This move comes after the PSL’s partnership with the betting company Betway at the beginning of the season. While players have been explicitly prohibited from betting, there are concerns about the integrity of referees, who have made several high-profile errors this season.

However, Khoza emphasized that the PSL has limited control over referees, as they are appointed by SAFA, the governing body of football in South Africa.

As stated by FIFA, referees around the world belong to the mother body of football, and in South Africa’s case, they belong to the South African Football Association (SAFA).   

“The control of the referees, that’s why whenever issues are happening on the field of play, there are talks that ‘Khoza this and Kaizer Motaung that, what are they doing?’. We don’t have control of the referees (decisions),” reiterated Khoza.   

“We are getting the service from mother body because FIFA has made it quite clear that leagues cannot have a say in the appointment of the referees and that is one of the reasons why we have invited people who are selecting referees to come and tell the clubs how on how they select referees, how they do their reviews and when can we get the reports of the reviews and get reasons why there is suspensions because we have few recommendations.  

“Fortunately, we raised this matter some time ago and we had a joint liaison committee where it was thrashed out and we articulated our request and that is why they are coming now for themselves to come and hear.  

“It is among the issues you are raising now and we can only communicate with SAFA to say ‘these are our conditions under these rules and for people under this regime to be complying with and we undertaking because we have been asked to sign as a sponsor and you must do likewise’. 

“So, I think they also equally affected by this undertaking we are talking about today because they (referees) are the most important people because they are responsible for the image of the game. 

“They are the main people on the pitch and it is very important for them to be co-operative but I cannot impose that. We can only make them aware – the mother body – in the joint liaison committee structure that is meant for such purposes to be discussed.”  

Khoza further explained that the PSL has invited SAFA representatives to the AGM during the election to address club owners and media regarding refereeing standards and the appointment process.

“That’s why we have invited the media for the first part of the AGM so that when these questions are asked, you guys are there, to hear for yourself and we are not going to protect anybody, we are going to make sure that everybody is open to talk,” Khoza said. 

“We are not insulting the referees and the referees have integrity and it is not an easy job to do, but they are doing their best to make sure that they maintain the image of the sport as deeply as they can, but they are human.  

“But you guys will be there to do an adjudication when these questions are asked because we don’t know how the appointments are made and we see stories, same to you as a media. 

“There are stories that we hear and we get little there and little there and that’s why we have invited SAFA and the media to the session of the AGM to participate.”