CAPE TOWN :FIFA’s reticence to dock World Cup points from South Africa for using a defaulter in a March fixture is casting a cloud and creating confusion ahead of this week’s potentially decisive round of African qualifiers.
South Africa, who admit their mistake, erroneously fielded midfielder Tebeho Mokoena in a 2-0 home win over neighbours Lesotho when he should have sat out the World Cup qualifier after two cautions in previous fixtures in Group C.
South Africa were severely embarrassed when they belatedly discovered the mistake but insist because their opponents did not protest, they will not lose the three points.
“We did something bad, we did something we shouldn’t do, but there was no complaint,” said South Africa coach Hugo Broos this week when again questioned on the matter.
But FIFA’s Disciplinary Code makes provisions for proceedings to be instigated by the administration of world football’s governing body, not only via protest, and they have previously sanctioned countries which have committed the same offence.
The rules state: “If a person receives a caution in two separate matches of the same FIFA competition, they are automatically suspended from the next match in that competition.”
The disciplinary code also adds: “If a team fields a player who is not eligible to participate (due to suspension, registration issues, nationality, etc.), the match is automatically forfeited. The default result is a 3–0 loss, unless the actual result was even more disadvantageous to the offending team.”
“It is not normal that we don’t know the situation about the points on the log table before our games this week,” said Gernot Rohr, coach of Benin, which is second behind South Africa in the standings.
“It is very, very strange. Normally, South Africa should lose three points, and they should go to Lesotho. But nobody knows why they (FIFA) did not take this decision,” he told Reuters.
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Repeated queries to world football’s governing body in Zurich have gone unanswered in the five months since the incident.
Rohr would know better than most the ramifications of fielding an ineligible player. In the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, when he was Nigeria’s coach, they forfeited the point from a 1-1 draw in Algeria for fielding Shehu Abdullahi, who was suspended.
“We didn’t know he was suspended, and we lost the points in the disciplinary committee,” added Rohr.
With their win still intact, South Africa lead the standings with 13 points, five ahead of Rwanda and Benin and six ahead of Nigeria, whom they host in a crunch game in Bloemfontein next Tuesday. Lesotho have six points and Zimbabwe sit last on four.
Losing three points would see South Africa’s advantage reduced to only two points with four qualifiers to play and put Lesotho into second place, setting up a nervy round of matches when the six protagonists play on Friday and again next Tuesday.
The teams tussling for qualification want clarity. “The world still awaits FIFA’s decision,” said the Nigerian Football Federation on their website this week and Rohr added: “FIFA should now very quickly give the decision.”
The group winner qualifies automatically for next year’s finals in North America.
(Editing by Sharon Singleton)
