{"id":387,"date":"2025-09-29T17:29:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T17:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gugudde.com\/blog\/?p=387"},"modified":"2025-09-29T17:29:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T17:29:14","slug":"south-africa-docked-points-for-fielding-suspended-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gugudde.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/29\/south-africa-docked-points-for-fielding-suspended-player\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa Docked Points for Fielding Suspended Player"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FIFA\u2019s disciplinary panel has overturned the result of South Africa\u2019s World Cup qualifying win over Lesotho after confirming that Bafana Bafana fielded a suspended player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ruling awards Lesotho a 3\u20130 victory and deducts three points from South Africa\u2019s tally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original match, in which South Africa had beaten Lesotho 2\u20130, featured midfielder Teboho Mokoena who, FIFA found, was suspended at the time for accumulating a second yellow card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Because of that ineligibility, the victors were penalized and the score line was adjusted to a 3\u20130 defeat and South Africa lost the three points they had earned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision has immediate consequences for the group standings as South Africa fall from first to second place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their goal difference reduced as well as the points deduction. That swing lifts Benin to the summit, edging ahead on goal difference by a single goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Benin still face away assignments in Rwanda and Nigeria as the group stage approaches its final fixtures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only group winners secure direct qualification, while the best four second-placed teams will enter a play-off in November for a place in the intercontinental play-offs next March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the table now tighter, South Africa\u2019s path has become markedly more precarious and the race for qualification has grown even more competitive<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FIFA\u2019s disciplinary panel has overturned the result of South Africa\u2019s World Cup qualifying win over Lesotho after confirming that Bafana Bafana fielded a suspended player<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"right-sidebar","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"normal-width-container","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"disabled","ast-banner-title-visibility":"disabled","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"disabled","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gugudde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gugudde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gugudde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gugudde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gugudde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gugudde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":392,"href":"https:\/\/gugudde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions\/392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gugudde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gugudde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gugudde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gugudde.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}