It is often said good sportsmanship is when players, coaches, referees or match officials, as well as the fans, treat each other with respect while playing fairly and following the rules.
But in all formats and codes of sport, there are spoiled sports. A case in point is one Pitso Mosimane, coach of Egyptian giants Al Ahly.
Flustered by his “Team of the Century” being thrashed 1-0 twice in succession by his former club Mamelodi Sundowns, SA’s PSL champions four times in a row and winners of the 2016 CAF Champions League in the same African inter-club competition, Mosimane was unnerved.
An agitated Mosimane saw red and could not resist weeping.
His world was crumbling around him and he had to devise means to save face.
He went for the jugular by blaming everyone but himself and his players for the defeats that may have confirmed that the Red Devils’ crown was slipping out of their hands, and Masandawana was rising as an African football powerhouse.
He did not waste time in slamming the Sundowns supporters, claiming harassment by the Brazilians hordes before and after the match, inside and outside the stadium at Nascrec last Saturday.
His club officials have now filed a complaint, asserting their bus was forced to use back routes when Downs supporters blocked the road to the stadium, thus the players could not warm up adequately. Where was the escorting traffic police?
What I saw before the match was fans cheering and ululating for former Sundowns forward Percy Tau, who was signed by Mosimane from Brighton & Hove Albion in the English Premier League.
Mosimane was also applauded by the Downs fans and he responded by doing the traditional KaboYellow clapping of hands above the head after the match.
Jingles, the former Bafana Bafana coach, intimated he was not unhappy with how he lost both fixtures but went on to accuse Sundowns officials of using underhand tactics to unsettle him and his players. He did not elaborate on how.
It has often been whispered to me that the former Bafana midfielder is a sore loser, I believe it now. He always wants things to go his way. He must learn to leave room for disappointment.
To aggravate tensions he then went for the head of African football, his former boss at Sundowns, Patrice Motsepe.
He likened the current CAF president to the “dictatorial” and long-serving former president, Issa Hayatou, who misgoverned the soccer body for 31 years.
The decorated SA coach pointed to the alleged dilly-dallying of Motsepe and his administration in implementing Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology, more so in top continental competitions such as the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), the Champions League, and the Confederation Cup.
He alluded to the fact that they have VAR at every top-flight match in Egypt.
But for the first time, there was VAR at Afcon.
In his attack of Motsepe, could it be that Mosimane is retaliating after Sundowns slapped him with an R8-million lawsuit for unceremoniously dumping the club at the end of 2020 before his contract, which was only five months old, expired?
Only time will tell how this court battle plays out.
It would also be interesting to see how the acrimonious battle between Mosimane and Sundowns officials and fans ends because the two teams are still going to meet on the field of play in the future.
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