S.Africa stripped of World Cup qualifying points over ineligible player

CAPE TOWN : South Africa have been stripped of three points in their World Cup qualifying campaign for fielding an ineligible player, denting their hopes of reaching next year’s finals.

FIFA said on Monday that its disciplinary committee had found South Africa guilty of playing midfielder Teboho Mokoena in a 2-0 home win over Lesotho in March when he should have sat out the qualifier after two cautions in previous Group C games.

Lesotho have been awarded a 3-0 victory, with South Africa stripped of the points and fined 10,000 Swiss Francs ($12,536.04), while Mokoena was given a warning.

Benin now top the standings on goal difference, level with South Africa on 14 points with two games left.

Nigeria, who were the group favourites, are three points behind along with Rwanda. Only the group winners qualify directly for the World Cup, though the runners-up have a chance to win a berth albeit through an arduous playoff process.

In the penultimate round of qualifiers on October 10, Benin visit Rwanda, Lesotho host Nigeria and South Africa take on Zimbabwe.

The final set of key games on October 14 see South Africa hosting Rwanda while Benin are at neighbouring Nigeria.

EMBARRASSMENT FOR SOUTH AFRICA

Losing the points is a major embarrassment for the South African Football Association, with coach Hugo Broos already admitting: “We did something bad, we did something we shouldn’t do."

But FIFA’s handling of the matter has come in for criticism as it took world soccer’s governing body almost seven months to settle a routine matter.

It had not held a disciplinary hearing before the last round of World Cup qualifiers, to the ire of the other countries.

“It is not normal that we don’t know the situation about the points on the log table before