{"id":61811,"date":"2025-09-18T20:08:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T20:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-opens-case-against-safa-over-mokoena-suspension"},"modified":"2025-09-18T20:47:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T20:47:03","slug":"fifa-opens-case-against-safa-over-mokoena-suspension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-opens-case-against-safa-over-mokoena-suspension","title":{"rendered":"FIFA Opens Case against SAFA over Mokoena Suspension"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>FIFA has officially opened disciplinary proceedings against the South African Football Association (SAFA) and midfielder Teboho Mokoena after the player was fielded while under suspension in a 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier.<\/p>\n<p>The incident occurred on March 21 in Polokwane, where South Africa defeated Lesotho 2\u20130. However, it has since emerged that Mokoena should not have been eligible to play, prompting FIFA to refer the matter to its Disciplinary Committee.<\/p>\n<p>SAFA and Mokoena now have six days to submit their response. If found guilty, Bafana Bafana could be forced to forfeit the result, handing Lesotho a 3\u20130 victory on paper. Additional sanctions, including fines or suspensions, may also be imposed.<\/p>\n<p>As of now, SAFA has not released any public statement, leaving the nation\u2019s football fans anxiously awaiting the outcome of a case that could have serious implications for South Africa\u2019s World Cup qualifying campaign.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Lesotho<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. FIFA has officially opened disciplinary proceedings against the South African Football Association (SAFA) and midfielder Teboho Mokoena after the player was fielded while under suspension in a 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier. The incident occurred on March 21 in Polokwane, where South Africa defeated Lesotho 2\u20130. However, it has since emerged that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":61810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-61811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>FIFA Opens Case against SAFA over Mokoena Suspension - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"FIFA has officially opened disciplinary proceedings against the South African Football Association (SAFA) and midfielder ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-opens-case-against-safa-over-mokoena-suspension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FIFA Opens Case against SAFA over Mokoena Suspension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FIFA has officially opened disciplinary proceedings against the South African Football Association (SAFA) and midfielder ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-opens-case-against-safa-over-mokoena-suspension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-18T20:08:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-18T20:47:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1758212039.81999.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"548\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-opens-case-against-safa-over-mokoena-suspension#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-opens-case-against-safa-over-mokoena-suspension\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"FIFA Opens Case against SAFA over Mokoena Suspension\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-18T20:08:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-18T20:47:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-opens-case-against-safa-over-mokoena-suspension\"},\"wordCount\":162,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-opens-case-against-safa-over-mokoena-suspension#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1758212039.81999.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-opens-case-against-safa-over-mokoena-suspension#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-opens-case-against-safa-over-mokoena-suspension\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/fifa-opens-case-against-safa-over-mokoena-suspension\",\"name\":\"FIFA Opens Case against SAFA over Mokoena Suspension - 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