Sundowns could fine their captain for Champions League red card
Hlompho Kekana is likely to face disciplinary action at Mamelodi Sundowns for receiving a red card in a Caf Champions League preliminary match against Otoho d’Oyo last week Sunday in Congo Brazzaville.
Hlompho Kekana of Mamelodi Sundowns (Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix)
Sundowns lost the first-leg 2-1 as they were already 2-0 down when their skipper was sent off. Club coach Pitso Mosimane says Masandawana are set to look into Kekana’s situation and possibly hand him a fine for costing the team.
“I don’t know what he said to the referee but I was not happy with his hand gesture to the referee. He knows and he apologized to the team and his teammates,” said Mosimane.
“We will assess if he has to get a find or not but if you easily let it go like that, anybody else can say it is okay, there is no repercussions so we have to be consistent in our way to deal with the players because you cannot leave us with 10 players in the Champions League when we are playing away,” he added.
The man himself, Kekana, realized his mistake and promised to thread carefully next time as he is the last person Sundowns would expect to remonstrate in bookable offence at referees.
“One should really acknowledge that it was really naïve of me to really get that red card. I should know better in that space because referees are fragile so I should be very careful when dealing with referees in that space. It happens, it is part of the game and I am sure I am still going to get red-carded in the future,” said Kekana.
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