PSL throw the book at Wits pair for assaulting referee
Bidvest Wits goalkeeper Ricardo Goss and attacker Sameehg Doutie are set for lengthy bans after the Premier Soccer League announced on Friday that they had been charged with assault and misconduct.
Ricardo Goss of Bidvest Wits pushes referee Masixole Bambiso during the Absa Premiership 2019/20 game between Cape Town City and Bidvest Wits at Cape Town Stadium. (Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix)
This was after the pair were both caught on camera pushing referee Mxolisi Bambiso in the Clever Boys’ 2-0 loss to Cape Town City on January 18 at the Cape Town Stadium.
READ: Referee gets shoved for allegedly not doing his job
Bambiso awarded a penalty to City in the second half, for a foul by Thabang Monare on Thamsanqa Mkhize, and incensed Wits players approached him, with Goss pushing him and then Doutie also shoving the referee.
Goss did pick up a yellow card, but Doutie somehow escaped even a caution. In November, the PSL banned Mpho Makola for six months after he pushed referee Abongile Tom in October, during a Telkom Knockout last 16 clash with Kaizer Chiefs. That sentence, however, was reduced to a four-match ban on appeal, and it could be that the league decide to replicate the latter punishment, seeing as Wits could be confident of getting it reduced in any case, on appeal.
The Clever Boys are in Guinea this weekend, where Gavin Hunt’s side will take on Horoya on Sunday, in a must-win match if they are to have any chance of making the Caf Confederation Cup quarterfinals.
One major problem for Wits is that Horoya are virtually impregnable on their own patch, losing just once in 34 home matches in the Caf Confederation Cup or Caf Champions League, way back in March 2014 to Tunisian outfit CS Sfaxien.
Wits currently have just two points from four matches in Group C, and are rock bottom of the standings, with the top two in the competition making it to the last 8.
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