Red card for PSL’s best referee, Jelly Chavani

The DStv Premiership League’s best referee in the 2019/20 soccer season, Mr Jelly Chavani, will be out of action for four weeks. The South African Football Association’s (SAFA) has suspended him, following a controversial decision that he took in the game between Orlando Pirates and Moroka Swallows at the Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg on Sunday, 10 January.

The final score in that match was 1-1. During its meeting last week, SAFA’s match review committee found that most of Chavani’s decisions in that game were controversial. The committee found that Chavani had denied Orlando Pirates what they described as a “clear penalty”.

When confirming Chavani’s suspension, SAFA’s chairperson of the refereeing committee, Mrs Natasha Tsichlas, insisted that bad officiating in DStv Premiership League games was not a reflection of the standard of refereeing in the country.

Tsichlas admitted that Chavani’s suspension was disappointing as he is the reigning referee of the year. The 24-year-old Chavani was presented with a cheque to the value of R50 000 in October last year, following his nomination as the league’s best referee of the season. Chavani’s former school, Chavani Senior Primary School, recognised him during a special event at the school about two months ago.

Chavani started blowing the whistle at local football association level way back in 2013. He was promoted to officiate at professional level in the middle of the 2015/16 soccer season. He only got to officiate a few National First Division matches that season. After excelling in the few NFD games that he officiated that season, Chavani was given the nod to officiate in PSL matches as well.

Date:04 February 2021

By: Frank Mavhungu

Frank is a Human Resources Manager at the Department of Public Works in Limpopo. He is the longest serving correspondent of the Mirror, having joined us at the end of 1990.  He mainly writes sports reports and resides at Tsianda Village. In 2004, Frank won the National Castle League Award, an award for the best reporter in the SAB league in South Africa.

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