South African Football Association (SAFA) can appeal FIFA's decision to dismiss their protest against Ghana.
SAFA lodged the protest after Bafana Bafana suffered a 1-0 defeat against Ghana in 2022 World Cup qualifier in early November. Ghana's victory was aided by a controversial penalty decision.
However, SAFA's failed to prove their claims of match-fixing, hence FIFA decided to rule in favour of Ghana.
“The protest lodged by South Africa has been declared inadmissible by the Disciplinary Committee as it did not meet the requirements foreseen under art. 46 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code and art. 14 of the Regulations of the Preliminary Competition of the FIFA World Cup 2022.”
FIFA added, “the decision is subject to appeal” and opportunity for SAFA provide the right evidence, if they have any.
SAFA responded to the ruling minutes later, saying “We have received the decision without details and we will request FIFA for the reasons and consider our options.”
South Africa wanted the crucial qualifier against Ghana in which they lost 1-0 replayed, and also protested about Senegalese referee Ndiaye Maguette.
South African Football Association (SAF) were convinced they had provided enough evidence to back their match manipulation claims and were confident of FIFA granting their request for a replay and also banning Maguette.
Maguette awarded Ghana a contentious first-half penalty, which was scored by Andre Ayew to secure victory and the Black Stars passage to the final qualifying round.
The ruling means Ghana will be represented in the play-offs draw which was moved from December 18 to January 26 2021.
The 10 teams for play-offs are Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Egypt, Tunisia, DR Congo, Mali, Algeria, Cameroon and Morocco.