South Africa Coach, Hugo Broos, has blamed Nigeria for the three-point deduction his side suffered for fielding an ineligible player in their game against Lesotho earlier in the Group C qualifying series.
FIFA deducted three points from South Africa’s haul as punishment for fielding on an ineligible Teboho Mokoena in the March, 2025 qualifier which the Bafana Bafana won 2-0. But rather than blame his team’s record keepers for the costly error, Broos said that FIFA would not have noticed the infraction if Nigeria did not persist in calling for the world football ruling body to punish his team.
He told the Belgian Dutch-language newspaper HetNieuwsblad: “Not #Lesotho, not me and my staff, and not the player in question were aware of any wrongdoing. Neither was FIFA.
“The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has met three times since then, and there was never a problem. Until two weeks before this crucial two-legged World Cup qualifier. It’s not normal, is it? No doubt due to pressure from Nigeria, which was in a losing position and now has a chance again.
“If this costs us the World Cup, it will be truly heartbreaking. Those yellow cards were from a year and a half earlier, but it will never happen to us again – 10 men have been keeping track of the yellow cards ever since.”
However, despite his annoyance with Nigeria, Broos said that he is banExcitementgeria to defeat Benin Republic to hand the initiative back to his team.
Going to the last matches tomorrow Bafana Bafana, on 15 points, trail leaders Benin (17) by two points while Nigeria, on 14 points, can still fancy their chances at Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo as long as they beat Benin and Bafana lose to Rwanda at the Mbombela Stadium in Mpumalanga.
That scenario has given Bafana coach Hugo Broos little hope that despite his team suffering because of poor administration by the South African Football Association (SAFA), Bafana Bafana can still qualify for the World Cup.
“We played against a very motivated team who fought for every metre and every ball,” said Broos of Zimbabwe who were using Friday’s encounter as part of their preparation for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations where they’ll meet Bafana Bafana again.
“It was a little bit strange (the way Zimbabwe fought), but it’s OK, it can happen and that shows again the relations between these two teams, certainly when they play against each other.”
Having accepted the point and the fact that Benin are now in pole position and will qualify with victory over the Super Eagles, Broos admitted it’s no longer in Bafana’s hands but all they can do is win their game against the Rwandans and hope the other result in Uyo goes their way.
“It’s still possible but it becomes more difficult than today. We have to go to that match believing that maybe with a little miracle on Tuesday we can still qualify.”
That little miracle will certainly be realised if Bafana beat Rwanda and Nigeria do them a huge favour by beating fellow West Africans, Benin in Uyo.
“It’s not (qualification) 100 per cent lost, it can still happen. It will be very important what happens in the game between Nigeria and Benin. We’ll see what the result will be there.
“But on the other side we don’t really have to look. If we win our game we’ll see what happens. That’s the most important thing.
“It’s possible, we have to believe. We’ll be down in one or two days and we’ll do everything to again have a team who believes in it on Tuesday.”
He believes that Nigeria will want to defeat Benin by at least three points to stand a chance of winning the group ahead of Benin if South Africa faltered against Rwanda or at least secure the second place, which could be enough for a playoff spot.
Benin are currently +5 on goal difference, while Nigeria are +3, meaning if they finish on 17 points the team with a better goal difference would finish as runners-up to Bafana (18 points) and go to play-offs that could still help them qualify.
“It’s a good thing that Nigeria can even be first now,” said Broos. “They have to win against Benin in the last game. The biggest danger is now Benin. If we win, OK, Nigeria cannot be over us but if we don’t win and Benin lose then it will be the goal difference between them and Nigeria that decides the group. This is something we have to believe in even if it’s difficult.
“It will really be disappointing if Nigeria wins against Benin and we don’t win against Rwanda and by that defeat we should miss the World Cup.
“That’s why today it’s a very sad evening, but there’s still hope. But we have to try to take the big chance that we have on Tuesday.”
The Bafana Bafana arrived in Mpumalanga on Saturday morning to start preparation for the game against Rwanda, where they will be without defender Mbekezeli Mbokazi who got a last-minute red card against Zimbabwe.
