The South African Football Association (SAFA) has threatened to launch an official protest to Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and Confederation of African Football (CAF) over their defeat to the Black Stars on Sunday.
The Bafana Bafana lads lost in Cape Coast by a goal to nil over the weekend in the game they described as a clear case of “daylight robbery”.
Bafana Bafana needed a point to reach the third and final round of African qualifying series, but missed the chance after Andre Dede Ayew converted a penalty which has become the talk of the day.
It happened when Daniel Amartey went down in the box after defender, Rushine de Reuck, heckled him in a challenge that resulted in a yellow card from Senegalese referee Ndiaye Maguette.
Speaking to South African journalists before the team’s departure on the morning of Monday November 15, 2021, Chief Executive Officer of SAFA, Tebogo Motlanthe, indicated that the entire country feels robbed and hence has already registered their displeasure with the match commissioner and intentions to make formal complaint.
“I think from our hearts is to say the match officials have decided the game which is not what is supposed to happen. We suspect the game was fixed and our position is that it must be investigated”
“The Association has decided to launch a formal complaint so that the conduct of the match officials are closely investigated by both FIFA and CAF”, he revealed.
He added that the FA will consult experts to examine the referee’s performance and use that as a yardstick to call for a rematch.
“It was not only the incident of the penalty, it was not in isolation and we will commission an expert in the form of a retired referee to analyse the performance of the referee” Tebogo Motlanthe stated.
He also cited a similar occurrence in 2017 where South Africa replayed its qualifier game against the Teranga Lions of Senegal in which the latter won, booking a ticket to Russia 2018 World Cup.
It followed a complaint Senegal filed to FIFA against the officiating referee, Joseph Lamptey, who was found guilty for awarding a non-existent penalty for South Africa in a game that ended 2-1 against the Teranga Lions.
“Of course, we are looking at the precedent which FIFA set by ordering us to replay Senegal and we think if justice needs to be served the decision should be taken against this Ghana game” he said.
