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Safa to lodge formal complaint against match officials

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The South African Football Association (Safa) will officially lodge a formal complaint asking Fifa and Caf to investigate the performance of match officials during Bafana Bafana’s 1-0 defeat by Ghana this past Sunday evening.

South Africa’s hopes of participating in the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar ended with a 1-0 defeat by Ghana through a controversial penalty converted by Andre Ayew.

The biggest talking point of the game came when Senegalese referee Maguette Ndiaye controversially adjudged Rushine De Reuck to have fouled Daniel Amartey in the box, although replays suggested there was minimal contact between the two players.

Safa CEO Tebogo Motlanthe confirmed that the body will be taking further action on the incident.

“The association has decided to lodge a formal complaint so that the conduct of the match officials is closely investigated by both Fifa and Caf,” Motlanthe said in a voice note posted on Safa’s official Twitter account.

“But we will be having a press conference that will be telling the nation what will happen going forward.”

Motlanthe further explained how they lodged the formal complaint to both Fifa and Caf by “ticking all the boxes” before their departure back to South Africa.

“For us, the match officials have decided the game, which isn’t what is supposed to happen. As the association we have decided we will be writing to both Caf and Fifa to investigate how the game was handled and, secondly, to also challenge some of these decisions. We have already registered with the match commissioner that we will be writing a formal complaint,” Motlanthe confirmed from Ghana.

“Of course, we are travelling today [Monday], but we have ticked all our boxes. The full complaint submitted will be supported by all the evidence, which was there, to say the game was either indeed manipulated or the referee has done something wrong. We are very disheartened by their action and we can’t leave it and let it destroy the players when we have the chance to challenge it. We feel very much robbed because it is not an isolated incident of a penalty – there are just a lot of questionable decisions by match officials.”