Mamelodi Sundowns’ Pitso Mosimane heaps praise on PSL as the ‘best in Africa’
JOBURG – The Premier Soccer League receives praise from unfamiliar quarters in coach Pitso Mosimane who always moans about refereeing standards.
The Premier Soccer League has received a pat on the back for a job well done in running the continent’s ‘best football league’.
The praise came from the often grumpy but well-travelled Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso ‘Jingles’ Mosimane, who compared match officiating, pitch conditions, coverage of the games by print media and television and the professional conduct of clubs of this country to other African countries and pronounced ‘we are number one on the continent’.
“I have travelled and I have seen, hence I can safely say that we’re doing the right thing… Some of the stadia are in such bad shape that you would think it’s a remote village stadium,” he said in an interview at the Premier Soccer League offices in Parktown after receiving his award for Coach of the Month for February.
“I am not going to talk about officiating because it’s so atrocious. I always complain about the standard of officiating in our games but go to our brothers in Africa and see for yourself. You’ll come back and take your hat off to our standards.”
Mosimane has spent the past five years on ‘safari’ in Africa with his Masandawana outfit on Caf Champions League duty and has seen it all. He has spent a lot of time in Morocco and Egypt of late to attain his Caf Professional Licence and makes a point to watch games in these countries. “I do this for the benefit of my team in the Champions League, so I can have insight into the way clubs in those nations play so I can use the knowledge gained to improve my [Sundowns] outfit, especially when it comes to playing in the Champions League.”
The former Bafana Bafana mentor is probably one of the most fined coaches in the Absa Premiership for badmouthing referees for some of their decisions but ‘we’re streaks ahead in the way we handle our games, the way we officiate, the way we run the league itself and the way we treat our opponents when they come here to play us’.
“I take my hat off to the Premier Soccer League’s professionalism and the way they run the league and also to officiating in our games. It’s next to nothing on the continent. Yes. There is room for improvements but it has no comparison.”
Related article:
https://northeasterntribune.co.za/228529/mosimane-lorch-bag-accolades/
