AmaZulu president Sandile Zungu has expressed his support for the introduction of VAR in the PSL, believing it will enhance the integrity of the DStv Premiership by reducing officiating errors.
Zungu is convinced that with VAR, AmaZulu could have secured a top-eight finish last season, as some of their results were affected by incorrect calls from officials.
Despite the positive outlook on VAR’s potential benefits, the PSL and SAFA have faced challenges in implementing the technology, primarily due to its high cost.
The two organisations have been in discussions about introducing VAR, but financial constraints remain a significant hurdle.
Zungu hopes that a solution can be found to bring VAR to the league, improving fairness and accuracy in match officiating.
“VAR is long overdue in this country. VAR is not a silver bullet,” Zungu said.
“Mistakes do happen even after a review (VAR), we are not sure whether the penalty between England and Netherlands was legit but then VAR said it’s a penalty.
“But it’s better than the nonsense that we sometimes witness. When we rely purely on humans (Officials) to decide the faith of many.
“There is nothing as disheartening as motivating a team and seeing them giving their best at training only to come out losers undeservedly so.
“And knowing that the person who has the power is the man in the centre (referee), two assistants, and the fourth official, what can you do about it? Nothing.
“We can write and comment, if you overdo it you inviting the rot for bringing the league into disrepute and it’s not fair.”
The president has also said it’s disappointing for the people who invest in the league to see games being decided by officials’ mistakes and urges that the VAR must be implemented.
“Especially for the millions that various family offices have thrown into the game to be decided by individuals.
“Who’s officiating sometimes leaves much to be desired is unfair.
“VAR is long overdue; will it be a silver bullet? I doubt it but is the only way forward and I’m told that everyone is thinking along the same lines.
“It’s only a matter of time whatever it is resources, training of referees, allocation of infrastructure to that effect or inadequacies of our stadia for the purposes of the VAR I don’t know.
“But whatever it is that’s where the world is going, I think we need to follow suit, it’s the right thing to do.”
Usuthu finished the previous campaign on 36 points and Zungu reckons that if the officials had been fairly in some of their games, his club could have been in the top-four spot of the DStv Premiership.
“We now have Cijimpi, Pablo Franco Martin, who is our head coach and we believe we have the right man for the job.
“If you look at last season, we had 36 points at the end of the season of which we could have added easily another 14 points if we had been officiated justly.
“We are on record that we were dealt with unfairly. If we had got maximum points we could have easily been a top-four team.”
The Durban-based side will also unveil their new acquisitions towards the end of July as well as new kit and announce a new sponsorship after the club’s deal with Spar came to an end last season.
