SAFA CEO, Tebogo Motlanthe
FIFA will deliberate on SAFA’s replay request against Ghana today
Tebogo Motlanthe said they will win the case against Ghana
The GFA has urged FIFA to throw SAFA’s case away
The Chief Executive Officer of the South African Football Association, Tebogo Motlanthe, has said that they are confident that FIFA will order a replay of the game they played against the Black Stars in Cape Coast.
The Bafana Bafana of South Africa lost their ticket to the playoff stage in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers after losing 1-0 to the Black Stars at the Cape Coast Sports Stadium on Sunday, November 14, 2021.
After the game, SAFA registered a complaint with FIFA, protesting against the penalty which the Black Stars converted and alleging that the game was fixed in favour of Ghana.
The Ghana Football Association responded to the allegations accordingly to FIFA through its General Secretary, Mr Prosper Harrison Addo urging football’s world governing body to dismiss the protest lodged by SAFA which according to them was not properly done.
The football world’s governing body, FIFA, in a statement with regard to the protest said:
“We wish to inform the South African Football Association as well as the Ghana Football Association that the above-mentioned protest would be submitted to a member of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee on 23 November 2021 for consideration and decision in accordance with art.14 (9) of the Regulations FIFA World Cup 2022, preliminary competition as well as arts. 46 and 54 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code (FDC).”
In a response to the GFA as the two countries wait for the final verdict of FIFA, Tebogo Motlanthe said that they are confident that the ruling will go in their favour.
“They [FIFA] would have just sent it [SAFA’s complaint] back otherwise. We will hear from them tomorrow [November 23]. We are still confident.”
“What we are complaining about is the conduct of the match officials as governed by article 18 of FIFA’s Disciplinary Code. You can’t make a protest about the referee’s decisions. We believe his [the referee’s] conduct was manipulated,” he said as reported by Goal.com.
