THE PENALTY KINGS! Kaizer Chiefs do it again... but questions have to be asked

ON THE SPOT: Willard Katsande again

THERE'S a trend emerging in the PSL. And it has to be talked about. Kaizer Chiefs, utterly ineffective up front but still in the title race, have been awarded FOUR PENALTIES in their last FOUR GAMES.

It's never comfortable having a go at South Africa's most popular club. They have a reputed following of 15 million in a nation of 60 million. They are an institution. They are the current champions. But it's getting hard to ignore the help they're getting from South Africa's sub-standard officials in recent weeks.


Here are the facts: Apart from the drab 0-0 draw with current leaders Mamelodi Sundowns, we have the Telkom KO final, the 2-1 win over Bidvest Wits and Sunday’s 1-0 win over Bloemfontein Celtic as evidence.

The two penalties in the final were simply laughable. Chiefs were never in the game. Referee Khulisani Qongqo offered Steve Komphela’s lacklustre troops a way back in TWICE but Siphiwe Tshabalala and Camaldine Abroad both saw their penalties saved by Man of the Final Dennis Onyango.

Triumphant Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane simply laughed about the spot-kicks afterwards: “You all saw it… you know” he said, and avoided another PSL fine. After all, it was December 16, Reconciliation Day.

Fast forward three days to the big League clash: Against Bidvest Wits in Cape Town on December 19. Gavin Hunt, slightly more aggressive than Mosimane, was beaten 2-1 after referee Daniel Bennett offered Chiefs another penalty - this time it looked a reasonable shout - amid a couple of crucial pro-Chiefs decisions, including a missed off-side for the winner.

Hunt said: “We knew Chiefs would get a start, you saw it, but what can we do? Wits are an unfashionable club. You know how it works.”

And so to Sunday in Bloemfontein. Good atmosphere, poor surface, not a great game. Chiefs were probably the better side but when Malawian Gabadinho “Frank” Mhango broke in to the box for Celtic and was tripped by Tower Mathoho, referee Thabo Mkosi immediately blew.

But was it a penalty? NO! He cautioned the unfortunate Mhango for “simulation” and Steve Komphela’s men were off the hook. At half-time, we all saw the replays. We all saw the truth.  Celtic had been robbed.

Then, with 70 minutes gone and not a goal in sight, Chiefs new signing William Twala, on as a sub for the lamentable Ugandan Sula Matovu, hit the post with Cameroonian goalkeeper Patrick Tignyemb getting a touch.

That looked like it was going to be the closest thing to a goal we’d see - until Twala fell over running in to the box with Aphiwe Lubisi minutes later. Former Orlando Pirates winger Twala, signed in some kind of swap deal with Chippa United which saw him “released from his contract” must be laughing like a drain.

Lubisi had a hand out as Twala went across him. He touched his back. There was contact. But then came the Olympic dive and the now-traditional PENALTY FOR KAIZER CHIEFS!

And who better to put it away than the Willard Katsande, for me the best defensive midfielder in the country. After those two Telkom final misses, Katsande - who celebrated his 30th birthday last Friday - assumed the responsibility against Wits. And he did it again in Bloemfontein.

Of course the AmaDrawsi - heading towards 8 draws out of 14 (and threatening SuperSport United’s 2012-13 record of 17 in a season) - won’t agree but it feels like Katsande is currently Chiefs best - perhaps only - threat. From 12 yards of course.

He now has as many goals as the once-prolific Bernard Parker (2) and with 16 games still to come in a poorly scheduled PSL, he could yet reach double figures if the penalties keep coming. Nobody deserves it more than Katsande, a humble, terrific character.

But the point is, people see the decisions. The penalties. My phone was red hot on Sunday with people involved in the game questioning another spot kick win for Chiefs, who have lost just once this season and are now FIVE short of Sundowns and Aces at the top.

But when Serame Letsoake came out to talk to Robert Marawa after the game, Chiefs coach Steve Komphela was asked to stay in the frame. And when the crucial penalty question came, the articulate former team-mate stopped the under-pressure Letsoake from replying.

“Of course it was a penalty, there was a shove,” said Komphela, talking over his rival. He then blathered on about enemies and friends and when he walked away, with Letsoake crying “Steve, Steve…” the penalty question was NEVER repeated.

I’m not saying the debate is deliberately avoided. Or that replays of these incidents are deliberately avoided by SuperSport in their bid to stay cosy, even AmaKhosi, with the big guns of the PSL.

All I’m saying is: WE SEE YOU. Four penalties, four games. Nobody can prove anything (though football and cricket match-fixing have been uncovered in this country several times in recent years) but it can’t be ignored.

The people who KNOW football are aware. Coaches, players, former referees and elderly journalists who have spent 40 years covering football all over the world. We know. It has to stop. Please.

Baxter fuming on the Kaizer Chiefs bus after Soweto Derby: If you give a penalty for THAT, you have to give penalties all day

Shooting from the lip: Chiefs boss Stuart Baxter

AS I write this, Stuart Baxter is on the Kaizer Chiefs bus struggling to come to terms with an MTN8 semi-final defeat at the hands of his old rivals Orlando Pirates.

And he is running and re-running video replays of the incident which turned the second leg around: the 74th minute penalty which ensured a home draw for the Buccaneers, who advance to Saturday’s final 2-1 on aggregate after their 1-0 first leg win.

Double-winning Baxter, the first foreign coach ever to win the PSL in his first year as a club coach in South Africa, is not a fool. He doesn’t put his foot in it, like Clinton Laursen famously did live on camera earlier this season after Bloemfontein Celtic red card against Mamelodi Sundowns.

He’s calm. He’s contained. But he’s fuming after seeing Bernard Parker’s first half rebound cancelled out by Lennox Bacela’s spot kick.

I cannot quote everything he said. I can tell you he did send two post-match SMSes which made my blackberry go bright red.

What I can say is this. Stuart Baxter feels desperately aggrieved. He has no personal issue with referee Daniel Bennett but his opinion deserves to be aired.

The fateful moment: Gould pulls Bacela's shirt
Picture from @matipwili on Twitter

As he watched the re-runs of Morgan Gould’s infringement on Orlando Pirates striker Lennox Bacela he issued a couple of non-printables: “I haven’t looked at this before, bear with me Neal,” said the man from Wolverhampton, then “Is THAT it? That’s what he gave the penalty for? FOR THAT?”

A discussion followed. On the bus, other opinions were being thrown about it the background. Obviously the Chiefs technical staff and their players sounded distinctly unhappy, as you'd expect. Much was said.

Here’s what I can quote from Baxter: “I had to be cautious after the game. I’ve blamed referees before and been wrong. I didn’t want to do that again.

“But now I’ve had a look at the incident, I’m confused. The level of Morgan’s contact on Bacela was much as it was on ANY corner at either end during the game. If he’s going to give a penalty for that, there would be penalties all day.

“In the modern day, there is always contact in the box on corners. One of our lads too an elbow in the face when their lad (Rooi Mahamutsa) was booked earlier in the game. That’s football these days, that’s what happens.

“I cannot understand this decision. I thought we’d weathered the storm when they hit the bar (Vieira Masalesa header after Siya Sangweni nod-back) but the penalty came just as we were starting to get back in the game.

“We ruled the first half. I don’t understand why we lost momentum second half. Their substitute Sifiso Myeni is a good player, he helped change the game. But we were playing long balls. We stopped playing for 20 minutes.

“In the end, we have to accept this result. It’s tough. But there you are. Best I don’t give you the full weight of my opinions right now!”

Baxter, always a great talker with encouraging ideas about development and the future, managed to contain his fury. Roger de Sa on the opposing bench could hardly contain his joy after a dramatic and entertaining Soweto derby at a sold-out Orlando Stadium.

Roger, whose Sea Robbers reached the last four of the African Champions League on Sunday, said: “We’ve done to great clubs like Al Ahly and Kaizer Chiefs in 24 hours (actually it’s 48 Roger!) and that can’t be bad. My boys never stopped running, we worked and worked.

“They were on top in the first half, but Myeni changed things, we came back in to it. It’s been tough. Two massive game like that in such a short space of time. Oupa Manyisa? How much running did he do today? Young Masilesa has stood up so well too.

“But we have a day off now. I hope my dog won't bite me, I haven' been home so long he might not remember who I am! Then the final in Durban on Saturday. We’ll be ready.”

BOLLOCKZ! my show on www.ballz.co.za, airs every Thursday from 10am-noon. See the Ballz channel on Youtube for our growing collection of interviews like the one above.

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Pirates sign six: including Nigeria's answer to Mario Balotelli

Always a Pirate: Onyekachi Okonkwo

ORLANDO PIRATES have re-signed Nigeria’s answer to Mario Balotelli – the tough-talking, ref-threatening, contract-breaking Onyekachi Okonkwo.

The big Irvin Khoza press conference was everything Buccaneers fans might have hoped for with SIX new players added to the double-treble champions’ squad in a single stroke – and the promise of “more to come” from the Iron Duke.

But hold on… what happened to the Zimbabwean striker Takesure Chinyama, just a medical short of signing for the Sea Robbers last week? Up north, they were telling us he was leaving Dynamos after being offered R100,000-a-month to join the South African champions.

Instead, we were offered midfielder Onekachi Donatus Okonkwo who begins his second spell in Soweto after leaving the club in 2007 in the days before silverware came in threes.

“Tico”, who has spent the last five years scoring goals in the contrasting surroundings of Switzerland and Qatar, grinned: “Once a Pirates, always a Pirate, that’s what they always say!

“Even when I was playing overseas with FC Zurich and Al Kharaitiyat, I always stayed in touch with the chairman.”

In a move which has distinct parallels with the return of Siyabonga Nkosi to Kaizer Chiefs, Okonkwo, at 30 the same age as Nkosi, adds: “This club has always been close to my heart. I’m looking forward to playing in front of the Ghost again.

“But although I’ve played here before, to come back to Pirates after five years abroad will be  challenge - it’s a completely different to the team I left behind in 2007. But Augusto Palacios is still here!”

Okonkwo is yet another cog in the machine Khoza is putting together to make a real run at the African Champions League next season – he won it with Nigeria's Enyimba as a youngster in 2003 and 2004. He also scored against his old club when Pirates reached the semi-finals in 2006.

But Okonkwo doesn’t come without a reputation for Balotelli-style controversy. In August 2006, during a Telkom Charity Cup match against Bloemfontein Celtic, Okonkwo was red-carded but refused to go, threatening to beat up referee Daniel Bennett. He was eventually dragged off by his Pirates team-mates. He also had a reputation for going AWOL when he went on various trials in Europe.

When he went to Europe, “Tico” had signed a pre-contract agreement with German side FC Koln but after a week, he disappeared and signed a four-year deal at Swiss side FC Zurich.

Okonkwo said he only agreed to a trial at Koln with their sporting director Klaus Horstmann threatening to take the matter to FIFA.

He joined Al Kharitiyath in the summer of 2010 and sad yesterday: “I did have options after Qatar in France and Belgium but European football can be stressful. This is where it started for me, and I'm happy to be back home.

“This club has always been close to my heart. I'm happy to be here where I can hopefully finish off my career.”

The press conference also starred five other players who have signed three-year deals for Pirates.

Patrick Phungwayo, signed from Wits (the Clever Boys are soon to be know as the Intellegent Older Gentlemen), young Khethowakhe Masuku from Black Leopards, Siya Mngoma from Amatuks plus Free States Stars duo Ayanda Gcaba and Manti Moholo. Quite what’s happening with Bloemfontein Celtic’ centre-back Eric Mathoho remains mystery, though Pirates have withdrawn their interest as Chiefs and Sundowns battle it out for the Tower.

Gcaba said: “I will always be grateful to Stars, I’d been there four years and they allowed me to move on. I'm looking forward to the challenge ahead.”

The Iron Duke told us: “We have had protected discussions over the last six months, with Isaac Chansa leaving (for China), we felt that it was important to replace him.

“We can't reveal secrets... we are still the best in the market, those who desire happiness and success must be prepared for war.

“Everybody is reinforcing. We are not done yet.

“There are still more players signing.”

Okonkwo’s career in a nutshell:

2004-2007       Orlando Pirates              43 games, 3 goals

2007-2010       FC Zurich                      62      (2)

2010-2012       Al Kharitiyath                 39      (5)

2006-2008       Nigeria                            9       (0)

His Christian name Onyekachi, means "Who is greater than his godly guarding?"