FIFA will release the toxic details of why referee Joseph Lamptey was banned for life with a betting syndicate suspected to have influenced the Ghanaian to force the outcome for South Africa's World Cup qualifier against Senegal.
Ghanasoccernet.com insiders at FIFA have revealed that contrary to the anger in certain quarters in Ghana that the referee was harshly punished for a 'mistake', murky details of his conduct have been discovered by the world governing body.
Irregular betting patterns surrounding the match were discovered by the FIFA Early Warning system which led to a deeper investigation before the controversial referee Lamptey was fingered.
This doesn't mean he was influenced by South African football officials as these influences could come from third parties with interest in the outcome of the match for betting reasons.
Lamptey declined to comment when confronted by Ghanasoccernet.com with the claims from FIFA as he is yet to get the full details of the ruling before deciding to challenge the ruling at CAS.
The details could shake the very foundations of refereeing in African football and could force FIFA to call for the replay for the 2018 World Cup qualifier last year.
FIFA banned Lamptey for life on Monday for match manipulation in a World Cup qualifier, soccer's governing body FIFA said Monday.
FIFA said Lamptey was found guilty of unlawfully influencing the result of South Africa's 2-1 win over Senegal in November 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.
CAF 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".
Lamptey awarded South Africa a penalty for a ‘handball’ that actually struck Senegal defender Kalidou Koulibaly’s knee.
Thulani Hlatshwayo converted the penalty in the 42nd minute and Thulani Serero added another goal three minutes later.
The decision proved influential. South African scored from the resulting spot-kick to make it 1-0, and went on to record a 2-1 victory.
Lamptey’s mistake could be decisive in the race to qualify for next year’s World Cup in Russia. Senegal sit third in Group D, a point behind South Africa and Burkina Faso, who lead the way via their better goal differential.
Lamptey previously served a six-month ban, imposed by CAF, for wrongly awarding a goal during a CAF Champions League semi-final in 2010.
South Africa's win left them level with Burkina Faso on four points from two games in the group with Senegal on three and Cape Verde on none.
FIFA did not say whether the result would stand or whether it would order a replay.
"Further information concerning the South Africa v. Senegal match in question will be provided once the decision becomes final and binding," it said.