Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams has made several allegations against Senegalese referee Maguette N’Diaye after their defeat by Ghana in their final Fifa World Cup qualifier this past Sunday.

The South African national team’s World Cup journey ended painfully after they suffered a 1-0 defeat by the Black Stars courtesy of a controversial penalty goal scored by Ghana captain Andre Ayew.

Senegalese referee Maguette N’Diaye was at the centre of the controversy as he awarded Ghana a penalty after Rushine De Reuck was adjudged to have found Daniel Amartey, despite there being minimal contact between the two players.

The South African Football Associating (Safa) has since lodged a formal complaint with world football governing body Fifa over the officiating throughout the game, with president Dr Danny Jordaan claiming the referee manipulated the match.

“When the referee comes to me before the game and says he is going to book me for time wasting, I already feel targeted,” Williams told media during a briefing at Safa House.

“Already going into the game with that at the back of my mind, that I am a target and that he is looking at me.

“Throughout the qualifiers, the ball boys did not have the balls in their hand. The balls were on the cones. But, in this specific game, the ball boys had the balls in their hands, which was unheard of in these qualifiers.

“Whenever the ball would go out, they would obviously restart it all very quickly and throw it back quickly, but the moment they scored, the ball boys disappeared, as you can imagine.

“It took long for the balls to get back and I wanted to speak to the referee to tell him that some of the balls are soft, but he did not want to hear anything about it. He said he would rather book me for time wasting. It was a bit of a challenge.

“In the second half, the ball boys practically vanished. If you can watch the game again, you will see me running for balls, I couldn’t find the ball and I think that’s where the ref should have stamped his authority and sorted it out.

“I mean coming to their goalkeeper … the moment they scored the goal, he took so much time.

“Not once did I see the referee speak to him. I think he only got booked in the last few minutes.

“From the 32nd minute when we conceded, up until the 90th minute – it’s 60 minutes in between – he was wasting time throughout for 60 minutes and not once did he get reprimanded, whereas I got reprimanded before the game, before we conceded – for like 30 minutes he was reprimanding me.

“I did not waste time because, like I said, the ball boys kept throwing the ball in immediately. So, I felt targeted already.”

The Bafana captain also revealed that they spoke to the referee during half time to call him out on his biased officiating.

“At half time, I went up to him and I asked him what the target was with our team,” he stated.

“Because it feels like the physicality of Ghana he was allowing that. I said they are playing very physical and not challenging the ball, so he just told me that it’s a contact sport.

“I said ‘Yes, but the rules must go for both teams’ and he just told me to get away ’cause he will book me.”