South Africa have been told that they can’t appeal the expected punishment of a three points and three goals deduction for fielding an ineligible player in a world cup qualifiers game against Lesotho which they won 2-0, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.
In that game during the last round of games in the world cup qualifiers, Teboho Mokoena who has two yellow cards from previous games was supposed to be suspended but played for over 80 minutes, and it could cost his team.
FIFA in time past has slammed points and goals deduction on teams who field any ineligible player with Nigeria, one of the rivals of South Africa in the world cup qualifiers group suffering a similar fate in 2018 for fielding Shehu Abdullahi in a dead rubber game against Algeria.
A similar punishment is expected to be given to South Africa, and it will see their point tally reduced to ten and Lesotho will move to second spot on nine points. More importantly their gap over their main rivals Nigeria will be just three ahead of their meeting in South Africa.
If as expected they are hammered, they will not be able to appeal the decision by FIFA as matters of ineligibility via accumulated bookings can’t be appealed unless in a case of mistaken identity.
A decision by FIFA is expected to be made public before the next round of games in September.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
