The South Africans only courted for public sympathy to cover up their bad performance as they have failed to qualify to the Afcon and World Cup in one year
Following the purported protest by the South African Football Association after the WC Qualifier with Ghana, I swiftly brushed off the calls of the SAFA insisting that they were not serious and that they were just making noise.
The media gimmickry from the SAFA was only to achieve one purpose; take off pressure from South Africans from the shoulders of the SAFA.
The Bafana Bafana failed to qualify for the 2022 AFCON and failing to qualify for the WC playoff stage meant they weren’t going to the world cup, and that in turn means South Africans won’t forgive the Danny Jordaan-led association.
So the SAFA felt they had a good platform of shifting the pressure from South Africans by ringing the protest bell.
Even before the response of the Ghana FA, I had said on my submissions on several Radio and TV stations both in Ghana and South Africa that their calls lacked merit and now it’s clear.
After the response from the Ghana FA to FIFA after the world football governing body requested the GFA to respond, the following are clear:
- South Africa never lodged an official protest to FIFA. They were only paying lip service. This is because FIFA says if u have a protest;
- Write it formally. They didn’t.
- Pay protest fee. They didn’t.
- Do all these within 24 hours. They didn’t.
- The SAFA claimed ‘Match Fixing’ but failed to name who fixed the match and with who. If a match is fixed, fixers. They failed to name who and who fixed the match.
- The SAFA claimed ‘Match Manipulation’ but failed to mention who and who manipulated the match. Certainly, if u claim a match has been manipulated, then someone did it. Who was that? The SAFA failed to name that person.
- The SAFA also mentioned bribery and corruption in the game but again, failed to name who bribed who.
Clearly, you could sense from the very day they sent their supposed protest to FIFA that they were just drowning and were desperately looking for anything to save them from sinking.
To my fellow brothers in South Africa, the SAFA has deceieved you into believing that they had a case when in actual fact, they didn’t even file an official protest.
How on earth, will a whole body like SAFA, go to the MC of the game and just say we want to lodge a protest without even writing something on paper to show they are in for business?
How on earth will the SAFA write to FIFA when they had not lodged any written protest with the MC as stipulated by Article 14(2) of the 2022 WC Regulations?
Isn’t it unpardonable for a whole body like SAFA to write to FIFA without any evidence to support their claims, and then indicate they will tender in evidence in 72 hours when in actual fact it must be done in 24 hours?
Does it mean the SAFA did not even know the regulations governing the competition?
Why will they spend hours organising pressers and issuing warnings to Ghana when the basic things needed to be done had not even been attended to?
Can the SAFA be taken serious from hence? With this, I doubt because even before the game, they didn’t even know that Ghana needed just a simple win to qualify. They were thinking Ghana had to score more than a goal to go through.
Clearly, all the noise they made on radio and tv in South Africa with analysis of 90% of fouls going against the Bafana Bafana in the game were all geared towards courting public sympathy from South Africans and nothing else.
Will I be magnanimous to say the SAFA is confused?
– Tophic Seinu