FIFA has opened an investigation into Ghana’s World Cup qualifier against Bafana Bafana on Sunday after the South Africa Football Federation (SAFA) lodged a complaint against the referee of the match played at the Cape Coast Stadium.
The world governing body opened a review into 2022 World Cup match on Monday after SAFA called for the conduct of the match official referee Maguette Ndiaye to be investigated over a first-half penalty it awarded the Black Stars during the match.
The Black Stars’ narrow win enabled them to reach the African World Cup play-offs by the narrowest of margins, ousting South Africa at the top of the group on goals scored.
SAFA made the “formal complaint” on Monday about “questionable decisions” made by the match officials in Sunday’s 1-0 defeat by Ghana.
FIFA has today confirmed that it is reviewing the matter without going into details of what the nature of its investigation into the match would entail.
“FIFA has received a complaint from the South African FA in relation to this matter and will review it. Please understand we cannot comment further at this stage,” FIFA said on Tuesday in response to a media query over the status of the complaint by SAFA.
Bafana Bafana needed a draw to reach the third and final round of African qualifying for the 2022 World Cup, but Ghana won with the penalty that has generated a lot of debate.
SAFA raised concerns over the legitimacy of the decision and the display of the officiating team from Senegal, headed up by referee Maguette Ndiaye.
The penalty was awarded after Ghana’s Leicester City midfielder Daniel Amartey went down following what appeared minimal contact from defender Rushine de Reuck, who was booked for his challenge.
But it is now clear that the penalty was awarded after Amartey went down following the heavy pulling down from defender de Reuck.
Close video replays have shown that South African defender Rushine de Reuck dragged Ghana’s Daniel Amartey with BOTH HANDS which resulted in the referee awarding a penalty kick to the Black Stars in their decisive 2022 World Cup qualifier on Sunday.
The evidence which has now been closely watched suggests that the Bafana Bafana player clearly fouled the Leicester City defender leading to the Senegalese match official pointing to the spot-kick which sealed the victory for the Black Stars.
The video from several replay angles show that referee Maguette Ndiaye had, just before the penalty decision, warned Reuck of his earlier infringement before the corner kick.
The Senegalese referee was closely watching the two players from just two metres just before the corner kick and clearly saw the South African pulling Amartey down.
Initial video of the incident was inconclusive which led to the South African Football Association (SAFA) claiming that hey had been robbed during the game at the Cape Coast Stadium which ended 1-0 after Andre Ayew expertly converted the kick.
Bafana Bafana needed a draw to reach the third and final round of African qualifying for the 2022 World Cup, but Ghana won the game from the penalty.
The Black Stars’ narrow win enabled them to reach the African World Cup play-offs by the narrowest of margins, ousting South Africa at the top of the group on goals scored.
South Africa is well aware that the capacity for matches to be replayed does exist before have been shouting ‘foul play’ but with video evidence now showing that the player pulled Amartey down he could not coil back into their shells.
