Baxter running out of lifelines
CURVEBALL: BAFANA’S ONLY POSITIVE RESULT TOSSED OUT THE WINDOW
Lamptey’s ‘poor performance’ and subsequent life ban throws major spanner in the works.
Bafana Bafana’s ailing World Cup qualifying campaign was dealt a further blow when Fifa last night ordered the qualifier between South Africa and Senegal, played in November 2016, to be replayed after the referee was banned for life.
Fifa said in March that Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey had been banned for life after they found him guilty of unlawfully in- fluencing a match result following South Africa’s 2-1 win over Senegal in African Group D.
Fifa did not give further details but African soccer’s governing body (CAF) said at the time that Lamptey had wrongly awarded a penalty to the South Africans and suspended him for three months.
The life ban for Lamptey was recently upheld by the Swissbased Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
“The Bureau for the Fifa World Cup Qualifiers ordered a replay of the qualification match between South Africa and Senegal held on 12 November 2016,” Fifa said in a statement late last night.
“The match will be replayed within the November 2017 international window, with the exact date to be confirmed in due course.
“As stated in the Fifa World Cup regulations, this decision shall come into effect immediately but shall be subject to confirmation by the Organising Committee for Fifa Competitions at its next meeting, scheduled for 14 September,” added the statement.
Caf had said that Lamptey was guilty of “poor performance” in the match and “awarded a wrong penalty for handball despite the fact that the ball never touched the hand of the player”.
Thulani Hlatshwayo converted the penalty in the 42nd minute and Thulani Serero added another goal three minutes later.
Lamptey previously served a six-month ban, imposed by CAF, for wrongly awarding a goal during a Caf Champions League semifinal in 2010.
Prior to last night’s bombshell, the cracks were already starting to show.
Bafana Bafana had just succumbed to a second defeat to Cape Verde in five harrowing days, this one an embarrassing display in front of their own fans, leaving their World Cup 2018 dreams hanging by a thread.
Stuart Baxter was brought in to lead Bafana to Russia, and was handed a seemingly decent base of four points from two Group D qualifiers by the efforts of Shakes Mashaba.
But it has fallen apart quickly. With Bafana’s only victory cancelled out by Fifa, Baxter’s boys are effectively bottom of the log with a single point after three games. The replay gives Senegal a second bite at a possible three points.
What was seemingly a difficult task, has now become mission impossible with Bafana Bafana now needing three non-negotiable wins and plenty of favours from the remaining Group D teams, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde and Senegal.
It is still, at this stage, hard to see them pulling it off.