{"id":62354,"date":"2025-09-30T21:24:02","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T21:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/south-africa-appeals-fifa-decision-on-bafana-points"},"modified":"2025-09-30T22:03:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T22:03:53","slug":"south-africa-appeals-fifa-decision-on-bafana-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/south-africa-appeals-fifa-decision-on-bafana-points","title":{"rendered":"South Africa Appeals FIFA Decision on Bafana Points"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>The South African Football Association (SAFA) acknowledges a ruling by FIFA\u2019s Disciplinary Committee which sanctioned the Association for erroneously fielding midfielder Teboho Mokoena during the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier between South Africa and Lesotho played on 21 March 2025.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of the decision, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee declared the match to have been forfeited by Bafana Bafana by the score of 3-0. The Association has also further been ordered to pay a fine of CHF 10,000, while Mokoena has been issued with a warning.<\/p>\n<p>As SAFA, we are deeply disappointed with this unprecedented outcome noting that it was delivered by a single-member panel without reasons, and without affording the Association an opportunity to present legal arguments.<\/p>\n<p>The Association confirms that we have requested written reasons for the judgment and intend to lodge a formal appeal with the FIFA Appeals Committee within the prescribed 10-day period under FIFA\u2019s disciplinary rules.<\/p>\n<p><b>Despite the outcome, the Association emphasises its continued commitment to supporting Bafana Bafana in their qualification campaign. The players and the technical team have worked extremely hard to reach this stage, and we remain focused on ensuring they secure maximum points in the matches ahead.<\/b><br \/>\n<b>\u201cWe apologise to the nation for this administrative oversight and will reflect on the steps to take at the conclusion of our qualifying campaign. Finally, we call on all South Africans to rally behind the team during this final and crucial stage of the qualifiers.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Bafana Bafana will next face Zimbabwe at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on 10 October 2025, followed by a clash against Rwanda at the Mbombela Stadium on 14 October 2025. Both matches will kick off at 18h00.<\/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. The South African Football Association (SAFA) acknowledges a ruling by FIFA\u2019s Disciplinary Committee which sanctioned the Association for erroneously fielding midfielder Teboho Mokoena during the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier between South Africa and Lesotho played on 21 March 2025. In terms of the decision, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee declared the match [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":62353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-62354","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>South Africa Appeals FIFA Decision on Bafana Points - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The South African Football Association (SAFA) acknowledges a ruling by FIFA\u2019s Disciplinary Committee which sanctioned th ...\" \/>\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\/south-africa-appeals-fifa-decision-on-bafana-points\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"South Africa Appeals FIFA Decision on Bafana Points\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The South African Football Association (SAFA) acknowledges a ruling by FIFA\u2019s Disciplinary Committee which sanctioned th ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/south-africa-appeals-fifa-decision-on-bafana-points\" \/>\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=\"2025-09-30T21:24:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-30T22:03:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1759256827.212413.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"810\" \/>\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=\"2 minutes\" \/>\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\/south-africa-appeals-fifa-decision-on-bafana-points#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/south-africa-appeals-fifa-decision-on-bafana-points\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"South Africa Appeals FIFA Decision on Bafana Points\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-30T21:24:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-30T22:03:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/south-africa-appeals-fifa-decision-on-bafana-points\"},\"wordCount\":293,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/south-africa-appeals-fifa-decision-on-bafana-points#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1759256827.212413.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/south-africa-appeals-fifa-decision-on-bafana-points#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/south-africa-appeals-fifa-decision-on-bafana-points\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/south-africa-appeals-fifa-decision-on-bafana-points\",\"name\":\"South Africa Appeals FIFA Decision on Bafana Points - 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