SAFA says that the life-long ban of Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey, who was found guilty of influencing the match result in Bafana Bafana’s 2-1 win over Senegal in November last year, has “nothing to do with them”.
The match, a World Cup qualifier played in Polokwane on November 12, 2017, saw Bafana gifted a penalty on 43 minutes when an Eleazar Rodgers header hit Senegal defender Kalidou Koulibaly’s knee.
To the bemusement of everybody on the pitch, Lamptey awarded Bafana a penalty for handball.
Thulani Hlatshwayo made no mistake from the spot to put the hosts 1-0 up.
It is not yet clear exactly how Fifa was made aware of Lamptey’s intentions to fix the outcome of the match, but some reports have suggested irregular betting patterns as the reason.
Fifa has said in a statement that it will give more details “once the decision becomes final and binding”.
The Senegal Football Federation have applauded Fifa for its action, but is waiting for finality on the investigation to see if any further action will be taken on the match in question.
That win, Shakes Mashaba’s last game as national coach, left South Africa in second place in Group D of African qualifying for Russia 2018, one point ahead of Senegal. But, for Safa, there is nothing to discuss and it has moved on.
“It has nothing to do with us. We went there, played the game and got the three points,” spokesperson Dominic Chimhavi told Sport24.
“If the referee was in any way compromised, it is none of our business. We have also been on the receiving end of certain decisions. When we played against Burkina Faso we received (were on the receiving end of) two questionable penalties.”
The match that Chimhavi was referring to took place on October 8 in Ouagadougou. It ended 1-1, but Bafana were made to survive two massive scares when Jonathan Pitroipa and Alain Traoré missed penalties for Burkina Faso.
“The long and short of it is that we have nothing to do with what has happened with this referee,” Chimhavi added. — Sport24.