*Rejoicing In Nigeria As Hope Rises
By Felix Durumbah, Abuja
Several hours after the story of FIFA sanctions on South Africa Football Association (SAFA) and its male national football team, Bafana Bafana broke, most newspapers in Nelson Mandela’s country appeared to have turned their backs to what has been tagged breaking news in Nigeria’s sports circles.
Recall that FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee sanctioned SAFA via a statement today, on the fielding of an ineligible player, Teboho Mokoena, during their World Cup qualifier away in Lesotho on 21 March, 2025. Bafana won the match 0-3.
FIFA stated that SAFA breached Article 19 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code and Article 14 of the competition’s regulations, with the South Africans to forfeit the earlier three points and the match now awarded to Lesotho on same 3-0 victory.
Bafana, leaders on 17 points, now plummet to 14 points after the forfeiture, are now level with Benin. Nigeria is on 11 points, after eight matches. All teams have two games to go.
FIFA’s decision can badly damage Bafana’s qualifying campaign, having slashed their points tally and boosted their rivals in Group C: Benin, Nigeria, Rwanda, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe (in that order on the table, presently).
In addition, SAFA is to pay a fine of about R200 000 (about N165,500) while Mokoena has been issued with a warning even as South Africa has a right to appeal the overall decision.
Though Bafana still lead Group C, there had been disquiet in Nigeria over FIFA’s seeming silence or inaction on the Mokoena matter.
Nigeria, who trail second-placed Benin by three points, had calculated that her chances of replacing Benin on the log will be better enhanced should FIFA hammer Bafana. Only the leaders of any group gain automatic qualification to next year’s World Cup.
With two games left, only defeats in both will see South Africa lose top qualifying spot. They play against already eliminated Zimbabwe and Rwanda.
With FIFA’s axe, South Africa and Benin are level on 14 points, with the October qualifiers coming next where Nigeria play Benin on October 14 in a decisive match for the Super Eagles, who, should they win and also defeat Lesotho on October 10, could topple the South Africans.
Nothing is cast in stone yet.
Among newspapers in South Africa, perhaps news of the FIFA axe was treated by the editors as no news due to patriotic fervour, so-called developmental journalism, or some other reason.
Nonetheless, checks by People&Politics showed that as of 4.30pm Nigeria time, most of the big newspapers in South Africa had not yet run the story.
The Sowetan, The Times, Business Day South Africa and few others had not accommodated it on their pages, including sports pages, which were painstakingly viewed by our reporter.
Most stories on their sports pages dwelt on exploits or failures of South African domestic league teams as well as those representing the country in CAF competitions,at the weekend.
There were also stories on boxing, athletics and so on.
South Africa’s biggest newspaper, Daily Sun, did not run the story on its front page.
Instead it ran a local sports story headlined ‘Duba: Everyone Wants To Beat Chiefs!” pertaining to Kaizer Chiefs as third lead story on page one, the most important gateway into any newspaper.
Apparently,if the FIFA news was adjudged big in any clime, not in South Africa -such may have been the news judgment psychology of its many newspaper editors.
But, another hugely-read paper, News24, ran the story, but as a promo on its front page.
Under the headline ‘Bafana blow: FIFA sanctions SA over Mokoena-gate, strips Broos’ charges of crucial points’, our checks showed that the paper used the story about 29 minutes before our search for it in South African papers began.
However, the promo indicated that the body of the story was on the sports pages.
People&Politics subsequently leafed through to the sports pages and discovered that the story was used as second lead story, not the main story.
Such was the importance the South African print media attached to the news, which has sparked celebrations and excitement among Nigerians.
Speaking on this when contacted by People&Politics, Abuja-based journalist and avid football fan, Mr Douglas Nnah of Wazobia FM, said the South African media reaction was not unexpected.
He said: “They won’t celebrate what has hurt them. To me, their media appear consored,sort of.
“Their government may not want them to report such news so as not to dampen public morale ahead of the remaining matches, even though here in Nigeria the FIFA action is big news for which many are happy.”
PHOTO CAPTION: Mokoena.
