Johannesburg – The South African government, through the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture are entering the fray and will be fighting alongside Safa in their quest to have Saturday’s 1-0 loss against Ghana replayed.
The ministry, led by Nathi Mthethwa is also seething and frothing at the mouth after Bafana were dubiously knocked out of the 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifiers by Ghana at the Cape Coast on Sunday.
Safa has lodged a formal complaint with Fifa and is hoping the result will be reversed and the match replayed, as it was the same with Bafana against Senegal in 2017.
“We will support Safa all the way. The president of Safa must pursue this matter until the replay is ordered by Fifa,” said the department of sport, arts and culture director general Vusumuzi Mkhize.
“What I saw there was very shocking refereeing which was disgraceful to football and I believe that Safa will not leave this unchallenged and must fight to get Fifa’s fairness and that justice is done for Bafana Bafana. We can not allow African football to find itself in complete disregard of rules and therefore we are prepared to support Safa in whatever step they will take and we are behind them. African football has to be cleaned and it starts with us. The new team is amazing and the cohesion and application is very good and in a very long time we have seen boys who are prepared to die on the field. They were crying on the field and that means that the level of patriotism is there and I believe the team must not be broken. I have spoken to most of the players and they say they will continue to fight. I want to congratulate the bravery and warrior spirit of these boys in a very hostile environment both on the pitch and outside of the stadium. What They deserve to go to the next round of qualifiers, it’s about fair play, let South Africa benefit from Fifa’s play motto,” added Mkhize.
Safa CEO Tebogo Motlanthe had mentioned that they will use their World Cup qualifying match against Senegal in 2017 that was replayed to put their argument forward.
The Senegal match in question was played in Polokwane and Bafana won 2-1.
The game was replayed after a Fifa review discovered that referee Joseph Lamptey awarded a penalty for non-existent handball and he was banned for life for match manipulation.
“We believe Saturday’s match was fixed and we are collecting information to prove our case. We are well informed that Ghana knew that they were going to get a penalty, it was a question of when, and this confirms our suspicions. We want to thank and compliment these young Bafana players for the commitment they have shown to the country. They fought very hard and unfortunately it was spoiled by the referee. But we will continue to support the boys emotionally because they are gutted,” Motlanthe said.
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