Rayond Hack, Attorney, Sports administrator, has lamented the delay by the world football governing body, to sanction South Africa over their use of an ineligible player during the ongoing World Cup qualifying series.
Hack said FIFA might be considering the fact that Lesotho, who were the team directly affected by South Africa’s action, did not protest and may decide to let the matter slide.
Many football fans and nations in the same group as South Africa are surprised that FIFA is yet to take a decision on the matter, urging the governing body to make a ruling on the eligibility case involving South Africa midfielder, Teboho Mokoena.
Recall that South Africa are under scrutiny after Mokoena, who was suspended because of yellow card accumulation, played in their March qualifier victory against Lesotho.
Should FIFA take a decision of deducting three points from South Africa, it could significantly affect the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in Group C which comprises Benin Republic, Nigeria, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Lesotho.
Speaking on Super Sports, Hack said, “The allegation is that the player was ineligible to play, so he played for Bafana Bafana, against Lesotho.
“What happens if the player is ineligible, and it is found that he is ineligible, the team is automatically fined, number one, secondly, they forfeit the points, and thirdly, the matter can go to the disciplinary.
“The strange thing here is that no decision has come out of FIFA yet. Now there can only be two reasons for that.
“The first one is you have to have a protest. Lesotho didn’t protest, but somebody else lodged a complaint afterwards, so whether the disciplinary committee are looking at it on the basis of he was ineligible, but there wasn’t a protest, is something I can’t tell you at this stage.
“The normal situation is, if you are ineligible, you cannot play, you are suspended for the particular game. If you do play, the team forfeits the three points that they would have got, plus they lose three nil, and there’s an automatic fine in terms of the rules.
“So I can only assume that because there wasn’t a protest. The disciplinary committee may be looking at it slightly differently, as a complaint, but even if it is a complaint, the player was still ineligible to play.
“So even if you find it afterwards, it’s exactly the same as if you commit a crime and you’re not found, you’re not found immediately but you’re found at a later stage, they have the right to sanction you.
“Why it hasn’t come out yet, only FIFA knows. I find it very strange. I mean, you had an instance a couple of weeks ago between Manchester United and Grimsby, where it was found, there was an ineligible player. You got a decision probably four days later.”