Why Safa aren’t appealing Fifa ruling
Safa president Danny Jordaan has explained why the association has decided not to appeal Fifa's decision to order a replay of Bafana Bafana's home 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifying Group D match against Senegal.
Safa president Danny Jordaan and Advocate Norman Arendse (Photo by Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images)
Fifa made the decision after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld a life-ban on Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey, who was found guilty of match manipulation in Bafana’s 2-1 victory over Senegal on November 12 in Polokwane.
“There is a moral and ethical question. We don’t want to be the recipients of the three points if the match has been manipulated,” said Jordaan on Tuesday morning.
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Safa lawyer Norman Arendse said that they had received evidence from Fifa that what was manipulated in that game against Senegal.
He added that Fifa were alerted to spikes in betting by their early warning system.
“Fifa has an early warning system, every game played under the auspices of Fifa is monitored. There are huge betting houses and they can see when there are spikes in betting. The spikes were there in this game and alerted Fifa that perhaps there was something wrong with the outcome of the match. Whether or not this was relayed to Senegal, we will never know.”
The Senegalese Football Federation did write a letter of complaint to the Confederation of African Football and Fifa after the game.
“It turns out what was manipulated was the number of goals scored in the match. The outcome is that we won’t pursue an appeal at this stage, we will accept the outcome,” added Arendse.
He did say, however, that Lamptey is appealing the CAS decision to ban him for life in the Swiss high courts, and that Safa could still launch an appeal if Lamptey is successful in overturning that decision.
This, however, could well only be a suit for damages as Lamptey’s appeal is likely to be heard long after Bafana and Senegal have played their rematch, set for this November.
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