The last has not been heard about the case of South Africa suffering a point deduction from world football governing body FIFA after fielding an ineligible player in their 2-0 world cup qualifiers win over Lesotho, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
South Africa played Theboho Mokoena for 81 minutes against Lesotho despite the fact that he was supposed to be suspended after picking up two bookings in previous games.
Lesotho said they won’t be filing a protest to FIFA because they failed to do so within the 48 hours window provided for protest against any team, they are however hopeful that FIFA will act accordingly and respect the rules of the world cup qualifiers.
Previously five teams including Nigeria who are in the group of South Africa suffered a three points deduction for fielding an ineligible player Shehu Abdullahi in their 1-1 draw against Algeria in the 2018 world cup qualifiers, without any protest from their opponent.
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Algeria were handed three points and three goals although it didn’t stop Nigeria from making it to the world cup. Prior to that Togo suffered a similar fate in 2013 during the preliminary of the world cup qualifiers when they fielded Jacques Alexy Romao in the 2-0 win over Cameroon, who was supposed to be suspended from the game.
In the 2014 World Cup Qualifiers, Ethiopia had their 3-0 win over Botswana awarded against them after fielding an ineligible player in Minyahil Teshome Beyene, who was supposed to be suspended after picking up two previous bookings.
The result didn’t affect their spot as group winners ahead of South Africa, but they failed to make it to the world cup losing out in the playoffs. Cape Verde suffered the most from fielding an ineligible player against Tunisia in the world cup qualifiers.
They defeated Tunisia 2-0 but were thrown out by FIFA for fielding defender Fernando Varela, who was sent off in a previous qualifier six months prior. Equatorial Guinea also suffered a similar fate with last year AFCON top scorer Emiliano Nsue.
Equatorial Guinea were made to forfeit two world cup qualifiers games by FIFA for fielding Nsue, who was for the second time deemed ineligible to play for them due to naturalisation issues.
All the above nation can file a complaint against FIFA to the Court of Arbitration (CAS) for injustice, if they fail to apply the same punishment to South Africa for a similar offence, as they has been no change in the rules that got them punished.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
