South Africa will stop at nothing to prove that they were robbed by Ghana in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers at the Cape Coast sports stadium as they take to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to challenge FIFA’s decision regarding their complaint.
FIFA ruled on Friday rejected South Africa’s appeal for replays of the game that they lost by 1-0 to deny them the chance of making it to the event to be played in Qatar in the coming 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 on Friday, December 3.
“The decision is subject to appeal,” FIFA added.
There were a lot of allegations, including the Ghana Football Association (GFA) official meeting to talk with Senegalese centre referee Maguette n’Diaye just weeks before the match, South Africa confidently lodged the protest, and was confident that their request would be granted.
With the protest being dismissed, South Africa are set to take their case towards CAS. Before the decision was made, SAFA President Tebogo Motlanthe suggested that it could happen.
“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 be in the play-offs, but they lost by 1-0, in the play-offs, with Black Stars being awarded a controversial penalty.
Source: Kingaziz.com