South Africa and Ghana have been at each other’s throats over the controversial penalty that saw Ghana beat Bafana in a World Cup Qualifier.
Safa president Danny Jordaan has come out swinging at the Ghana Football Association for the West Africans’ response to South Africa’s protest against the 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifier defeat by the Black Stars.
Ghana edged South Africa 1-0 in their final Group G match courtesy of a controversially awarded penalty converted by Andre Ayew at Cape Coast Stadium.
This left South Africa suspecting Senegalese referee who handled the match, Maguette Ndiaye, of match-fixing.
Safa’s complaint to Fifa drew the GFA’s reaction accusing South Africa of being “irresponsible, and outright disrespectful.”
Later on, Ghana wrote to Fifa asking the world football governing body to punish Safa for sending “the respected Fifa Disciplinary Committee on a fool’s errand or fishing.”
Jordaan has hit back at the GFA who he feels are football administration newboys after getting into office in October 2019.
“You cannot be schooled by a primary school teacher if you are a university professor,” Jordaan told Marawa Sports Worldwide as per iDiski Times.
“We have delivered a World Cup, it was voted the best ever World Cup on the African continent. We cannot be schooled by people who are just in their first year in administration and so we kept quiet.
“But also, it’s our democratic right to exercise the provisions and statutes and exercise our rights. As I said, it was Ghana’s democratic right to look at the statutes and exercise their options.
“No federation must cast aspersion if a particular federation exercises it’s right. What they have to do is to submit a proposal to amend the statutes to say ‘no, nobody must question any decision of any match. Let us just leave it and amend the statutes.’’
“While those provisions are there, we are within our right to exercise it and we are exercising it on behalf of our federation, on behalf of the people of our country and we will not apologise to anybody for exercising our procedural rights.”
Both South Africa and Ghana are waiting with bated breath to hear the ruling of the Fifa Disciplinary Committee on the match manipulation complaint.
Fifa will either order a replay of that World Cup qualifier or they will dismiss Safa’s protest in what would officially confirm the Black Stars’ spot in the play-offs round of the qualifiers.
The Disciplinary Committee was served with Safa’s complaint on November 23.
“Fifa has the best capacity for an investigation, as was proved in the decision in the South Africa vs Senegal match,” said Jordaan.
The Safa boss was referring to Bafana Bafana-Senegal replay of a 2018 World Cup qualifier after Ghanian referee Joseph Lamptey was found guilty of match-fixing.
Source: Goal