On Wednesday, Peter Koutroulis, the former Mamelodi Sundowns’ general
manager and current football manager at Pretoria Callies, had a surprising
comment about match officials after a league clash this past weekend.
Koutroulis has been instrumental in helping the team move up from the
bottom of the Motsepe Foundation Championship log after 12 matches, to
currently sitting in ninth place on the standings after 22 matches.
Prior to Koutroulis’ arrival at Callies, the club’s head coach Kwanele
Kopo had been the biggest critic of the match officials although he has
since made a U-turn and has been full of praise for them these days with
the team winning.
Speaking exclusively to the Siya crew, Koutroulis thanked the referees for
how they officiated in their most recent match on Sunday, against Black
Leopards, which they won 2-1.
“I would like to say thank you to all the referees who have officiated in
the matches for Pretoria Callies (since my arrival at the club). I don’t
want to criticize them when they are doing well. On Sunday, we played
Black Leopards in Venda and the referee who officiated in the match was
the best. In fact, all of them (including the assistants) were very good,”
said Koutroulis.
Koutroulis went on to say that he has not encountered any refereeing
problems in the league, and that he was happy with how the match officials
tried to be fair with their decisions.
“I hear stories with people criticizing referees and I feel they should be
complemented when they do well. Yes, referees do make mistakes at times
and that’s because they are human beings too. In this league, the most
difficult league because NFD (Motsepe Foundation Championship) is the most
difficult league, I haven’t encountered any refereeing problems. I
congratulated them (the match officials) because they were good and tried
to be 50/50 with their decisions and I’m really happy,” he said.
