Leadnaija
The South African Football Association (SAFA) is allegedly making efforts to evade a FIFA hammer after the Bafana Bafana fielded an ineligible Mamelodi Sundowns’ Teboho Mokoena in their match-day five of the ongoing 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho in Bloemfontein.
The match ended 2-0 in favour of the hosts but not without issues as Mokoena was ineligible for the game after getting two yellow cards in the previous qualifiers.
A South African source in the media arm of the association revealed to our correspondent that the SAFA would look at all possible areas of evading the punishment of three points and three goals deduction, which, if eventually carried out, would be awarded to Lesotho.
According to the source in a chat, “SAFA won’t just allow this to happen, they are going to look at every angle to this matter,” he said.
“The issue of lodging a petition must follow a laid-down course and I am.not sure it was fulfilled so we are also going to look at this.
“Bafana Bafana have done much to deserve to be at the World Cup and we are not going to let it slip just like that, so we are looking at the situation holistically,” he said.
Meanwhile, the FIFA disciplinary rule in this regard states; “If a player receives a caution in two separate matches of the same FIFA competition, they are automatically suspended from the next match”.
It also states that any protests against such development must be submitted to the Disciplinary Committee in writing, outlining the relevant grounds, within 24 hours of the conclusion of the said match.
This is where the lacuna hides as the protest letter submitted by Lesotho Football Federation did not go in line with the above code, hence, creating a space for South Africa to escape FIFA hammer.
The source said the SAFA are studying the above to see how they could gain from it in order to escape the impending points and goals deduction, a development that would grossly narrow the gap between them and the other chasing packs in the Group C of the CAF 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
Analysts believe that having previously set the precedent in the game between Ethiopia and Botswana in Gaborone in 2013, where the former forfeited three points to the latter, as well as the match between Algeria and Nigeria in 2017 where the Super Eagles forfeited a point to the Desert Foxes, all eyes would be on FIFA to follow their pattern.
South Africa leads Group C of the qualifiers with 13 points, five more than the second and third placed duo of Rwanda and Benin Republic respectively while Nigeria are fourth on seven points.
