Slips by match officials can sink many a ship

Bafana Bafana’s World Cup dreams were left hanging by a thread after Fifa this week ordered their qualifier against Senegal to be replayed after the referee was banned for match-fixing.

South Africa defeated Senegal 2-1 in Polokwane in November 2016 after Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey awarded them a controversial penalty. The Russia 2018 World Cup qualifier will now be replayed in November.

Lamptey was initially suspended for three months by African football’s ruling body Caf for awarding a “penalty for a non-existent handball”, with Fifa handing down the life ban in March. Sport’s highest court, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), confirmed “the lifetime ban” of Lamptey for “match manipula- tion”.

The ruling has left Bafana in all sorts of trouble, with just one point from three matches after Stuart Baxter’s men endured a horrible week at the start of the month when they lost home and away to Cape Verde, ranked 48 places below them. Burkina Faso and Cape Verde lead Group D qualifying with six points from four matches, with Senegal on five points and Bafana scraping the barrel on one point – albeit with a game in hand. It means Bafana will in all likelihood have to beat Senegal home and away, and Burkina Faso here, while hoping other results go their way if they are to play at a World Cup for the first time since hosting it in 2010. It looks unlikely that will play out, as Bafana look all at sea.

However, Fifa’s ruling asks the serious question of just when is ordering a sporting clash to be replayed overstepping the mark?

I mean, by the time Senegal and Bafana replay their qualifier, one year would have passed. A lot can happen in a year. Teams fall in and out of form, new players enter the fray and coaches come and go.

I’m sorry to open up old wounds, but Springbok rugby supporters would be forgiven for demanding the 2011 World Cup quarterfinal between South Africa and the Wallabies should be replayed.

Referee Bryce Lawrence made a number of ridiculous calls that resulted in the Springboks returning home before the business end of the competition. After copping heavy criticism for his performance – or lack of performance, should I say – Lawrence quit officiating. The New Zealand referee’s decision to quit, though, wouldn’t have made the quarterfinal exit an easier pill to swallow for the Springboks and their supporters.

Proteas cricket fans would also have a good case in demanding that every match involving Australian umpire Darrell Hair be replayed. The South Africans were on the wrong end of a number of dodgy decisions at the hands of the Aussie over the years – many that had an influence on the outcome of the match.

Suggesting Lawrence and Hair were involved in match-fixing –an act Lamptey was found guilty of – is going too far, but you can’t argue that their influence on the eventual results were equally damning.

There’s numerous other examples of questionable sporting outcomes as a result of below-par officiating.

Boxing springs to mind every time it goes to the judges for a points decision, while other howlers have ruined many a contest when everyone except the official sees the blunder.

Judging by the way Cape Verde made light work of Bafana, maybe the islanders should cash in on Fifa’s kindness to award replays and opportunities to grab extra points by asking them if they can play Bafana for a third time.