November 21, (THEWILL) – On November 14, in the final Group G fixture of the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifier between the Black Stars of Ghana and South Africa’s Bafana Bafana at the Cape Coast Sports Stadium, coach Hugo Broos suffered his first loss as boss of the South African national team since his appointment in May, when a penalty awarded to Ghana was converted by team captain Jordan Ayew.
The three points that the goal brought Ghana allowed the Black Stars to leapfrog South Africa, who needed just a point, to qualify for the playoffs.
However, when the final whistle went to wild celebrations by Ghanaian football fans, in stark contrast with the South Africans’ shocking realisation of missing another World Cup opportunity, it was immediately obvious that the result was far from being a settled affair, due mostly to protests from the South Africans about what they considered to be regulating irregularities that cost them the game and even resulted in the same penalty that gave all three points to Ghana. The goal gave the latter an advantage in terms of the number of goals scored, which is seven, compared to South Africa’s six, even though both teams had the same goal difference of +4.
Heading into the final tie, Bafana Bafana had racked up a 13-point tally from a qualification series of four wins and one draw and led the Group G standings, while Ghana was closely behind, having collected 10 points from their first five matches in the group. All Broos and his charges needed to do was simple: avoid defeat at all costs. Unlike Ghana that had the more arduous task of requiring victory to secure a path to the playoffs, the South Africans had the easier responsibility and were the pre-match bookies’ favourites to clinch the ticket available to the group.
The early exchanges were fluid as Ghana expectedly started the game with the intent to exert as much pressure as possible to quickly get in front of the visitors and improve their chances for victory. The Black Stars had early chances, but it was not until three minutes after the half-hour mark that they able to make it count. It came from what has been variously described as a considerably “soft” and therefore, highly controversial penalty that referee Ndiaye Maguette awarded the hosts. Yet, South Africa’s Rushine De Reuck should have known better than to have hands on Daniel Amartey’s jersey in the danger area to avoid any chance of Amartey taking full advantage.
The vociferous protests of the Bafana Bafana players notwithstanding, Maguette stood by his decision and Ayew stepped up to face Bafana goalkeeper and captain Ronwen Williams. In the face-off between the two team captains, Ayew came out on top, keeping his composure to break the deadlock and give Ghana the advantage by sending Williams the wrong way. South Africa, playing with less flair than they had done previously, were not as productive as expected, prior to the tie. But they had a penalty shout of theirs in the dying minutes of the game when Percy Tau believed he was infringed upon in the Black Stars’ box. Referee Maguette was unconvinced and waved for play to continue.
Reacting to instances, such as that against Tau and others throughout the game, South Africa filed a complaint to FIFA over what the country’s Football Association perceived to be “questionable decisions” in calling for the game to be replayed. Tebogo Motlanthe, Chief Executive of the South Africa Football Association (SAFA), insisted that a number of calls, including the penalty incident, went against his side and did not hesitate to conclude that rather than the quality of football played, it was the match officials that decided the outcome of the game. He, therefore, made it clear that SAFA was officially petitioning the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the world football governing body (FIFA) to investigate the match.
“We will be writing to both CAF and FIFA – first, to investigate how the game was handled and secondly, to challenge some of these decisions.
“We have already registered with the match commissioner that we will be making a formal complaint. We are very disheartened by their actions and we can’t let it destroy the players – when we have the chance to challenge, we will challenge.
“We feel very much robbed because it is not an isolated incident of a penalty. There are just a lot of questionable decisions by match officials and we will get an expert to dissect other incidents. So we can make a strong case. Of course, we are looking at the precedent whereby FIFA ordered us to replay Senegal and we think that if justice needs to be served the same decision should be taken against this Ghana game,“ Motlanthe noted.
In his comments, Motlanthe was alluding to the case where Bafana Bafana were made to replay a game that they had initially won by a 2-1 goal margin against the Lions of Teranga, the Senegalese national football team in the 2018 World Cup qualifying fixture. In that encounter, a wrongly awarded penalty helped South Africa to victory. However, the Teranga Lions successfully appealed to FIFA for a replay. A FIFA probe triggered by betting patterns led to Ghanaian referee, Joseph Lamptey, being found guilty of match manipulation. It was the first World Cup qualifier in any continent to be replayed after a referee fixed the outcome. Senegal won that replay and the victory helped the Lions qualify for the World Cup in Russia the next year.
By a strange stroke of coincidence, the implicated referee of the replayed World Cup qualifier between South Africa and Senegal, Lamptey, was a Ghanaian and the referee of the Sunday, November 14 tie between Ghana and South Africa, Maguette, is Senegalese. To further heighten the bizarre coincidences that crisscrossed the two occasions, Danny Jordaan, President of the South African Football Association (SAFA), claimed that there was a clear pattern of match manipulation during last Sunday’s World Cup qualifier as well, mirroring what was discovered in the Lamptey case. At a press conference last Wednesday, Jordaan concluded: “How is it that there’s a betting spike just before a major decision is taken and therefore people bet? They knew when to bet.”
To go beyond mere protests and to make their claims effective, SAFA employed the experienced eye of Ace Ncobo, a former South African referee, to compile the comprehensive dossier with which they forthrightly petitioned CAF and FIFA in the argument for their case.
According to Ncobo, there were 71 critical occasions during the match where the referee either ignored or made wrong calls against the South African squad, which formed the basis of their petition. He said, “What we are focusing on is manipulation of the course of the match, which impacts on the result of the match, either by an act or omission and that is what we have been able to prove and that should suffice for FIFA to make a finding on this matter without requiring any additional material.”
On Wednesday, the world body stated that it was actively looking into the claims by SAFA, but stopped short of providing any timeframe for a decision on the matter. Alerting the two football associations of its reception of SAFA’s protest in a public statement, FIFA said, “ … the protest will be submitted to a member of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee on 23 November 2021 for consideration and decision in accordance with art. Section 14 (9) of the Regulations FIFA World Cup 2022TM, Preliminary Competition, as well as Articles 46 and 54 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code (FDC).
“In view of the foregoing, the Ghana Football Association has the opportunity to provide the secretariat of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee with any comments it deems appropriate on the aforementioned protest, if any, by 20 November 2021 at the latest, along with any document deemed necessary. Finally, for the sake of clarity, please be informed that the FIFA Disciplinary Committee will decide on the protest using the file in its possession (cf. art. 20 par. 5 of the FDC,” the statement said.
On their part, the Ghana Football Association (GFA) issued their own statement on Thursday in response to SAFA contesting the results of their qualifier over the referee’s performance. The GFA statement refuted any wrongdoings that may have changed the outcome while raising its own concerns over SAFA’s behaviour and their own knowledge over how the competition was run.
In part, the GFA statement was brash and did not hold back from calling SAFA’s actions “irresponsible”. It reads: “It is shocking, irresponsible, and outright disrespect to note that our colleagues from South Africa Football Association (with whom we have good relationships with and mutual sporting respect) have chosen to spread falsehoods to the media rather than project the real picture of events before, during and after the game. Even though we believe that it is within the South African Football Association’s right to call for investigation, if they feel that certain factors contributed to their loss, we wish to state that the way and manner lies, and allegations have been thrown into the public space has been very irresponsible leading to injury and violence.”
Then, in a more conciliatory note, the statement said: “The Ghana Football Association call on the South African Football Association to responsibly accept defeat and show respect to the Black Stars’ achievement on the field, for this is not the first time Ghana has defeated South Africa and this will not be the last time. In fact, every South African knows the pedigree of the Black Stars in football, a reason the team has a lot of following in South Africa. The GFA will continue to project the positive image of football and protect the integrity of the game across the globe.”
The case is an example of why some refereeing decisions, especially in cases of penalties and red cards, have been outsourced to video assistant referee (VAR). Although, arguments over the best use cases of the VAR will not suddenly stop, as the technology still has its downsides, it has gone a long way to justify its use and clear the footballing space of situations such as these. However, the ball is now in FIFA’s court. A FIFA Disciplinary Committee meeting is set for November 23 to discuss the matter further and find a resolution that can put the matter to rest and allow African Football face the upcoming African Cup of Nations (AFCON) squarely.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
