The SAFA Review Committee confirmed the suspension of the match officials who wrongly awarded Moroka Swallows a dubious goal against Sekhukhune United in Wednesday's DStv Premiership clash.
Referee Siyabonga Nkomo and assistant referee Thamaga Sebati will not officiate any competitive matches for a period of between 4-8 weeks, after being adjudged to have committed an error in Swallows' dramatic 2-1 win.
READ | Swallows secure first win under Komphela with bizarre goal
"The review committee sat on Thursday, and found that the referee erred," Head of Referees at SAFA, Abdul Ebrahim tells KickOff.
"Yes, the match officials involved, which is the referee and his assistant will be sent for rehabilitation.
"We no longer use the word sanction; we say rehabilitation because it's a program they are put on.
"The technical committee now gets involved, and they will appoint a technical instructor to work with the two match officials.
"We have various platforms that we use, more prominently the FIFA RED which is a referee education and development platform.
"It was confirmed that it was an error on the side of the match officials, and they will be put under a rehabilitation program.
"Not necessarily the assistant referee who was furthest from the incident, but the two match officials directly involved.
"Both of them sent letters to say their communication at the end of the day was not effective.
"And obviously when the communication is not good then the outcome is not going to be 100%.
"And according to them, this was the error at the end of the day. Yes, they do have communication sets, and they do speak, but nothing could have stopped them from going to each other and talking in person.
"It has not yet been finalised how long are they going to be rehabilitated for, but it could be anything between four to eight weeks.
"They won't stop officiating, we cannot stop them from officiating in future, however, they will not be allowed to officiate in the National Soccer League (NSL) during this that period."
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