- For fielding ineligible player
- Bafana Bafana lose three points
- Defaulter Mokoena bags warning
- As Nigeria relish lifeline
Football governing body, FIFA has left the Group C of Africa’s World Cup Qualifiers open by stripping South Africa of three points for fielding an ineligible player in their 2-0 home win over Lesotho in March 2025.
In denting Bafana Bafana’s hopes of reaching next year’s finals seamlessly, FIFA has inadvertently handed Benin Republic the top spot in the standings on goal difference.
Both Benin and South Africa have 14 points apiece with two games remaining in the qualifying series scheduled for October 2025.
After months of dilly-dallying, FIFA on Monday declared that its disciplinary committee had found South Africa guilty of playing midfielder Teboho Mokoena in a 2-0 home win over Lesotho in March when he should have sat out the qualifier after two cautions in previous Group C games.
Lesotho have been awarded a 3-0 victory, with South Africa stripped of the points and fined 10,000 Swiss Francs ($12,536.04), while Mokoena was given a warning.
This is as Nigerian football fans see the development as a lifetime for the Super Eagles, who are currently three points behind along with Rwanda in the group where only the winners qualify directly for the World Cup.
However, the lucky runners-up has a chance to win a World Cup ticket through an arduous playoff process.
In the penultimate round of qualifiers on October 10, Benin Republic will visit Rwanda, Lesotho host Nigeria with South Africa taking on Zimbabwe.
The final set of key games holding on October 14 pitch South Africa against Rwanda while Benin visit neighbouring Nigeria for a make or make tie.
South Africa’s Dilemma
Losing the points comes as a major blow and embarrassment for the South African Football Association (SAFA), with coach Hugo Broos already admitting: “We did something bad, we did something we shouldn’t do.”
Knocks For FIFA
For now, FIFA’s handling of the matter has come under criticisms with the world soccer’s governing body taking almost seven months to sort out a routine matter.
The Football governing body did not hold any disciplinary hearing before the last round of World Cup qualifiers, to the ire of the other participating countries in the Group.
A worried Benin Republic Coach, Gernot Rohr had volunteered then that, “It is not normal that we don’t know the situation about the points on the log table before our games (last month).
Most disturbing was the fact there were no words from FIFA despite multiple enquiries from March about possible sanctions for South Africa. The matter was left unattended to until earlier this month when an investigation was eventually opened to address the matter.
Going by its existing rules, FIFA states that: “If a person receives a caution in two separate matches of the same FIFA competition, they are automatically suspended from the next match in that competition.
“If a team fields a player who is not eligible to participate (due to suspension, registration issues, nationality, etc.), the match is automatically forfeited.
“The default result is a 3-0 loss, unless the actual result was even more disadvantageous to the offending team.”
Available records show that this is not the first time a country has been fined and docked points for fielding an ineligible player in the African World Cup qualification series.
Nigeria was victim in the 2018 qualifiers as FIFA awarded Algeria a 3-0 win following the Super Eagles’ fielding of an ineligible Shehu Abdullahi in a match that ended in a one-all draw.
Also, prior to the 2014 finals in Brazil, the Cape Verde Islands lost out on a playoff spot after using Fernando Varela in their shock group win against Tunisia.
So, the North Africans benefitted from the error as Varela was still serving suspension, and went through to the playoffs instead of the Islanders.
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Benin | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 7 | +4 | 14 | 2026 FIFA World Cup | — | 0–2 | 2–1 | 1–0 | 4–0 | 1–0 | |
| 2 |  South Africa | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 9 | +3 | 14 | Possible second round | 2–1 | — | 1–1 | 14 Oct | 0–3[a] | 3–1 | |
| 3 |  Nigeria | 8 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 9 | 7 | +2 | 11 | 13 Oct | 1–1 | — | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | ||
| 4 |  Rwanda | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 11 | 10 Oct | 2–0 | 0–2 | — | 1–1 | 0–0 | ||
| 5 |  Lesotho | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 10 | −3 | 9 | 0–0 | 0–3 | 9 Oct | 0–1 | — | 12 Oct | ||
| 6 |  Zimbabwe (E) | 8 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 11 | −6 | 4 |
