TO ERR IS HUMAN

I WILL BE THE FIRST TO ADMIT THAT REFEREES ARE NOT PERFECT

"The referee has got that horribly wrong!", says the TV commentator, and in an instant the referee is vilified on social media. "The standard of refereeing in South Africa is so poor," is the rhetoric that is repeated ad nauseam.

I believe that much of the negativity around Premier Soccer League referees is actually from the past, the years when the "brown envelope" tainted our game.

Back in 2003, the South African Football Association, along with the Intelligence officials in the Scorpions, conducted a sting operation known as "Operation Dribble" into alleged match fixing in the PSL.