Deborah Akinyosoye
South African Football Association (SAFA) top officials are having sleepless nights after the country’s soccer-governing body gathered that Bafana Bafana may have been docked three points for fielding an ineligible player in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho, as FIFA prepares to make an official announcement.
With the Federation of International Football (FIFA) set to rule over the incident in the coming days or weeks, sports handle Soccer Laduma revealed that some SAFA top officials may have accepted their fate and are ready to face the consequences for their administrative negligence involving key midfielder Teboho Mokoena.
“Siya crew has been reliably informed that Bafana are likely to be docked points for fielding Mokoena in their Matchday 5 World Cup qualifier against Lesotho, despite the player reportedly being ineligible due to suspension,” Soccer Laduma wrote.
FIFA’s regulations stipulate that a player who accumulates two yellow cards in separate matches during the qualification campaign must serve a one-match ban. Instead, Mokoena was named in the starting XI for the crucial Lesotho clash, which South Africa won 2-0, despite receiving cautions in the opening game against Benin (MD1) and again in the fourth match against Zimbabwe (MD4).
Decent sources revealed that SAFA may have received official communication from FIFA or the Confederation of African Football (CAF) confirming the penalty.
“We, Bafana, have to win all the points that we have to play for going forward, and that’s all, to ensure that the team qualifies.
“An error was made, and we can’t be pointing fingers at individuals right now – what happened has happened, and we can’t go back. Those points are gone, as tough as that is to accept, but there are more to play for to ensure qualification. An announcement is pending,” a highly placed source told the Siya crew, speaking on condition of anonymity,” wrote Soccer Laduma.
The scenario now paints a grim picture for Bafana Bafana’s qualification trajectory, with Nigeria granted another fresh opportunity to revive their fading World Cup qualification hopes. Bafana are currently top of Group C with 13 points, narrowly ahead of Rwanda and Benin (8 points), while Nigeria is at the bottom with 7 points.
But the likely forfeiture of the Lesotho match could see the 2-0 win overturned, awarding Mzansi’s neighbours three points instead.