South Africa Football Association (SAFA) has headed to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) to seek redress after the world football governing body, FIFA rejected its petition against Ghana Football Association (GFA) on match-fixing in the last 2022 World Cup qualifying match involving the two countries.
Ghana’s Black Stars were awarded a penalty in the match against the Bafana Bafana of South Africa which the Orange Nation questioned and petitioned FIFA, calling for a rematch.
But FIFA on Friday threw the petition out for lack of merit.
But the former apartheid nation will stop at nothing to prove they were robbed in the qualifier as they are going to CAS to challenge FIFA’s ruling on their protest.
On Friday, FIFA threw out South Africa’s protest seeking a replay of the match which they lost one nil to end their hopes of reaching the global football spectacle in Qatar next year.
“The protest lodged by South Africa has been declared inadmissible by the Disciplinary Committee as it did not meet the requirements foreseen under art. 46 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code and art. 14 of the Regulations of the Preliminary Competition of the FIFA World Cup 2022,” FIFA said in a statement.
“The decision is subject to appeal,” FIFA added.
Amid wild allegations, including a GFA official meeting Senegalese centre referee Maguette N’Diaye weeks before the game, South Africa confidently lodged the protest and were convinced their wish would be granted.
With the protest thrown out, South Africa are heading to CAS. Even before FIFA’s ruling, SAFA’s CEO Tebogo Motlanthe hinted that if the ruling is against them, they will head to the CAS.
“I think as South Africans, the mistake we have made is that everyone thought the decision would be announced on November 23,” Motlanthe told Sowetan Live an anxious nation waits for FIFA’s answers.
“Remember, they said they were going to listen to the matter on the 23rd. FIFA didn’t say they were going to give a decision on that day, so let’s just give them their time to do their work.
“There are a lot of things they are dealing with. If they don’t give you a good reason, you can still go and challenge the matter with CAS. So, they’d rather do their work and we give them the space.”
South Africa needed a draw to qualify for the play-offs but lost 1-0 with the Black Stars who were awarded a penalty, which drew split opinions.
While some claimed it was a correct decision, others, South Africans in particular, insisted that it was a soft call and it has formed the basis of their allegations and subsequent protest.
