Soccer Scene: Let this one pass because it is not worth pursuing

Johannesburg- Just when South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa was in Ghana on Friday for a week-long state visit to four West African countries,  boom … Fifa, the world football governing body announced on the same day, through Sunday World, that it has dismissed Safa’s protest that disputed the result of Bafana Bafana’s 1-0 Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifying match defeat to Ghana held at the city of Cape Coast three weeks ago.

What a coincidence as the news broke when Ramaphosa and Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo were all smiles, shaking hands as the two countries strengthened their diplomatic relations.

But on the football front, relations between the two nations remained strained by the outcome of the Fifa disciplinary committee.

Fifa espouses fair play as its core value. However, in this case, fair play has been thrown out of the window.

No honesty on the part of its decision because they had all the facts at their disposal and even went to the extent of asking for more evidence from Safa, pointing to numerous instances of bias in favour of Ghana against Bafana Bafana by referee Maguette N’Diaye of Senegal.

I won’t bore you by getting into the nitty-gritty of the Fifa decision and its very short statement because Safa is still weighing its options on taking the matter further by appealing, suffice to say that the Fifa DC bosses are of the view that our complaint is unfounded.

N’Diaye has since disappeared from the face of the earth after CAF decided to blacklist him from the panel of referees for the CAF Confederation Cup play-off rounds. Bizarrely, Fifa has since ordered the use of video assistant referees for the remaining play-off matches.

To Jordaan and his team of legal eagles, do not pursue the matter further. Let Ghana contest the play-off round and qualify for Qatar. We wish them all the luck. They are our African brothers. Let this one go Safa, it’s not worth pursuing any longer.

Xolile Mtshazo