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JOHANNESBURG. — Former Bafana Bafana coach, Clive Barker, has defended Benni McCarthy following his extraordinary outburst during a heated exchange with Kaitano Tembo in Durban on Tuesday night.

McCarthy was involved in an ugly confrontation with his SuperSport United counterpart during a goalless draw in a South African DStv Premiership encounter.

At one stage, McCarthy could be heard shouting, “that’s why you’re broke,’’ as he showered the Zimbabwean coach with a number of expletives.

But, Barker, who led Bafana Bafana to glory at the ’96 AFCON finals, has defended the AmaZulu coach.

“In football, these things can happen very quickly and it can happen to anybody,” Barker told Kickoff.com.

“So, obviously, Benni will get it right and next time they can get the results.

“You know Benni will be Benni and you know you will have to live with that, he’s done it a couple of times now where he’s fought with the opposing coach but, I just think that as time goes by, he will get it right.

“I think last year AmaZulu were a collective unit, and now they are not so strong. So, I think, he’s going to have to turn it around pretty quickly.

“When I was a little bit younger I was like that also, so he’s going to get it right. I think he’s too good of a coach, but as I said he’s not had a good start so far this season, but people should just give him a chance.”

AmaZulu boss, Sandile Zulu, has also come out in defence of his coach.

“AmaZulu has been the victim of terrible refereeing lately,” Zungu told Kickoff.com.

“Particularly in our CAF Champions League match against the Malawian team. It was so terrible, zero out ten kind of refereeing. While it’s not the first time.

“So, you can understand why the coach feels agitated because he puts so much effort into preparing the team to compete.

“I think that he’s got no control over how referees officiate and he’s human as well so he gets agitated. I’m in full support of him. We’ve always known that he does get animated, and we’ve got no problem with that whatsoever.

“If the officials feel his actions are worthy of yellow cards and red cards they will take action at the time. But we are not dealing with yellow cards or red cards for Benni McCarthy.

“So, it’s all in the game.

“But, we are deeply concerned with the quality of refereeing. We’ve been the victim of bad refereeing decisions. I saw that game as unfortunately I was not at the Stadium but I was watching it on TV. I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with what Benni did.”

Zungu doesn’t expect the Premier Soccer League to charge McCarthy for his actions.

“Why would they charge him? What I know is that the game we played against Nyasa Big Bullets was terrible.

“Benni was much closer to the situation yesterday, I was not at the stadium. But what I saw on TV Benni had some justification for being animated.

“So as far as AmaZulu are concerned, we had a string of misfortunes, and things that are under our control we will correct. But things that are out of our control we will express alarm such as poor refereeing.” — KickOff.com/Sports Reporter