HOME > AFCON 2012 > NEWS > SAFA WILL PROTEST SOUTH AFRICAS FAILURE TO QUALIFY FOR THE 2012 AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS

Safa will protest South Africa's failure to qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations

Safa 'serious' about CAF protest

Posted: 2011-10-10 16:04

Safa insist they are serious about protesting the circumstance of their Africa Cup of Nations elimination, as the fall-out from a botched weekend qualifying game gathers momentum.

Safa chef executive officer Robin Petersen says they are pressing ahead with their legal bid to try and overturn their failure to qualify for next year's Nations Cup, although they are accused of putting forward a flimsy argument to cover up their embarrassment.

"We are going ahead with an appeal to the Confederation of African Football because we think we have a case," Petersen says.

Safa are claiming the interpretation of the tie-break rules is unfair after they lost out in a three-way tie at the top of their qualifying group to minnows Niger.

Niger took top place on a better head-to-head record, when Bafana Bafana thought that goal difference was the deciding factor.

Petersen insists the latter is the fairer option and that there is past precedent to overturn the standings, even though the rules for the qualifiers had been set out by CAF some time before the qualifiers even started.

Coach Pitso Mosimane told officials on Monday he had read the rules before Saturday's last qualifying game against Sierra Leone in Nelspruit but misinterpreted them, Petersen adds.

The coach was called in to explain how he got wrong his strategy for a game that South Africa needed to win irrespective of the result in the other group match, which saw bottom side Egypt beat Niger 3-0 in Cairo. The games were played simultaneously on Saturday.

Niger led both South Africa and Sierra Leone by a single point going to the weekend's last round of qualifiers but when news Niger were trailing in Cairo reached Mosimane, he told his players to play for a draw believing it would be enough to qualify.

There was exaggerated time-wasting in the last minutes followed by scenes of celebration before South Africa discovered they had botched the permutations.

A CAF spokesman said on Monday a South African protest would be looked into but refused further comment.

Mosimane has taken the brunt of vitriolic condemnation on radio talk shows and across social media platforms on Monday with overwhelming calls for his dismissal.

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werra: 2011-10-10 16:24

i dnt care abat dis i only care abat bots.....som o4 u may nt knw botswana, um tlking abat da dimond plate of africa, da ever democratic n peaceful nation with da evr strng currncy(pula)..... 2 b a south afrcn is a curse waitse.

Tshwane Derby: 2011-10-10 16:25

C'mon guys let it go, it is useless to protest that Issa Hayatou dictator will not entertain you

nealcollins: 2011-10-10 16:26

Personally I blame SABC for Sa****ay's shambles... what do you think? http://neal-collins.blogspot.com/2011/10/afcongate-source-revealed-man-who-told.html

Mnyango: 2011-10-10 16:33

I am not disappointed at all. As South Africans we are ignorant, especially us African people! Whether it's politics, economy, sports, anything..., we have inferior IQ. So, let's blame our low IQ. Case closed.

Anyway, the way Bafana Bafan performed on Sa****ay, we don't deserve to qualify.

nealcollins: 2011-10-10 16:34

Surely the SABC are to blame for this debacle? CAF won't change their minds now. You'd be surprised how many football coaches around the world rely on pitch-side interviewers for information. On this occasion, the SABC provided the misinformation that confused Bafana... and the nation. http://neal-collins.blogspot.com/2011/10/afcongate-source-revealed-man-who-told.html

Van Basten: 2011-10-10 16:40

Chiefs and Bucs fans are indeed hypocrites. We failed to qualify the minute your greedy club bosses informed your stars to fake injuries for the away Niger game so that they cam play in the finals 5 day later at the expence of Bafana Bafana,remember when you were all mum,looking forward to the so called derby of the century,guess what ,there was no derby of the century and BB failed to qualify,so what. Do you still believe you are smarter than the rest of us.

president : 2011-10-10 16:41

Ernest, wht r yu doing then on a "kickoff" SA blog, grow up bruer, never bite a hand tht feeds yu coz I bet yu are on the south african soil as we speak. I am warning you yung man. dnt cum with tribalist tendencies here. yu dare behqve like an agent, we will deal with yu. bek to soccer, nematendai ddnt deserve to be a safari president anyway, hence safa is ran like a SPAza shop.

LordD1: 2011-10-10 16:42

Like really now, when Nigeria lost out of the world cup to Angola because of a similar rule, I dont remember NFF apealing. SAFA should have done their homework better and inform the team including Mr Jingles as obviously he was too busy rehearsing the dance as opposed to rehearsing the rules which was ammended 29th January 2011? Comon Pitso, wake da hell up!!

LordJerry : 2011-10-10 16:42

The first line says safa's CHEF executive officer i repeat CHEF executive officer. That says it all the food officer has spoken. But operation Ruud Krol to Bafana is in full swing. Football 101 was mastered at the University of Orlando.

phely : 2011-10-10 16:49

no comment except to say nxxx safa nxxxx pitso.....why does safa want to embarass us further?

teacher 101: 2011-10-10 16:51

i see a 4 year ban coming our way.

LOKOMBWE: 2011-10-10 16:54

Breaking News: ZAMBIA PARTS WAY WITH BONETTI - Monday, October 10, 2011

The Executive Committee of the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) met today in an emergency meeting to review the performance of the Chipolopolo and have decided to part way with coach Dario Bonetti
FAZ president Kalusha Bwalya said the decision was taken by mutual consent and that "The team has qualified,there's still more that the team can give.The team has more potential than that."

"We will go back to the drawing board,consult with stakeholders and make necessary cahnges in due course."

werra: 2011-10-10 17:06

@ president... ar u tryn 2 thrtn me, guez wat u dnt pose any threat 2 me get it mo yo dead useless brain... 4 yo info um nt in yo racst, xnophbc, apathrd desert..

Vusi: 2011-10-10 17:07

I don't support SAFA appealing but I think this rule is biased....head-to-head involves TWO teams. I just think "mini" league and head-to-head are two different things. For me the 14.1 rule applies to two teams NOT mini league. As for Pitso, lets keep him even the incoming coach will loose. We are not a power house in football anyway. Just look at Pirates last season, they won everything but they were pathetic. we lack players with football brains....hoofing and puffing is our football!

0764102zn: 2011-10-10 17:10

pitso mosimane must go, safa president need to resign before the end of this week. mphela,khune,parker,gaxa,tshabalala,jali the new coach must not use them.

Sello: 2011-10-10 17:10

"Coach Pitso Mosimane told officials on Monday he had read the rules before Sa****ay's last qualifying game against Sierra Leone in Nelspruit but misinterpreted them", Petersen adds.

So we have a coach who cannot read/intepret something this straight forward! Not surprising that we are not going to AFCON.

Wandile : 2011-10-10 17:12

"Petersen insists the latter is the fairer option and that there is past precedent to overturn the standings, even though the rules for the qualifiers had been set out by CAF some time before the qualifiers even started". Please inform us of one situation were this happened?

Thank God I spent quality family time rather than watching these average players from a well resourced country do what they do best; clinch defeat at the teeth of victory.

This whole debacle reminds me of that of the extension of our former Chief Justice's tenure in office. Our Constitution clearly says that PARLIAMENT can extend the a Chief Justice's tenure yet all presidential legal advisors (incompetentent I might add) failed to read the constitution and the Pres made a fool of himself by attempting to extend the former Chief Justice's tenure.

As a result of their oversight or maybe plain incompetence SAFA did not read the rules. They must accept that they erred and apologise to the nation. It is neither here nor there that the rule is unfair/fair depending on which side of the coin you view it, the rule is there, was there and it applies/applied uniformly to all nations involved in AFCON qualifiers.

Yet SAFA is wasting hundreds and if not millions of rands that could be challened into development, on an appeal with no merits what so ever. We know that SAFA is incompentent, why than go at such length to expose your incompetence/swore loser attitude to all and sundry.

0764102zn: 2011-10-10 17:16

if consitent is what we so on sartuday then something need to be done. pitso mosimane said he want continuity i think its time for him to go before he let us down again.

Sydney : 2011-10-10 17:18

i dont see safa winning this appeal, the rule was made long before we played that game. they must start preparing for 2013 en stop complaining. pitso must stop using a calculater en also stop defending the whole game.

Wandile : 2011-10-10 17:18

Reports suggest that Itu Khune faked an injury to kill time and minutes after the game danced like a possesed wild horse he is. Lol! Baba cheating might assist your team in the PSL but this does mean it always apply at international level. Hope young aspirant soccer players dont take leave from this cheat.

I guise at the end of the day, FAIR PLAY prevailed and the rules APPLICABLE TO ALL TEAMS prevailed. We can't complain in that regard.

Glory : 2011-10-10 17:23

I agree that Kirsten , Pitso and some players except for Khune and Jali infact all players Over 25 must give way for the Ramagalelas , Kermit , Matoho , Myeni and other top youngsters stars . But Khune , Jali , Ngcongca and Claason must stay

Bleeding Ghost: 2011-10-10 17:23

agggh im so getting tired of these stupid fools that keep on wanting to humoliate us further....truth is if Bafana played with the intention of getting to Afcon through a draw then they clearly donot desrve to go through...SAFA WITHDRAW THE APPEAL NOW AND SAVE US FROM DHAME!!!!

Urchomie: 2011-10-10 17:25

LordJerry and teacher 101,u guys are killing me...ha ha haaa...ba re Safa chef executive officer....I agree,we are just applying for a ban here...or should I say BUN,just to keep it in the kitchen...ha ha haaaa!

Malindi: 2011-10-10 17:28

What is it that SAFA does not understand about the rules? Just let it go!!!

rae : 2011-10-10 17:37

i didn't watch the game, but i remebered entering kickoff website and saw the headline stating that bafana had qualified. Now what amaze me is the very same kickoff is now shifting blame calling people incompetent for failing to interpret the laws of the game. I dont recall seeing any news article interpreting the rules of the game b4 the game. How typicall of sa journos, full of judging people instead of getting the facts right, remember the media is a key source of information to the country yet none of you guys (jurnos) came forward to advice the country on the implecations of the rules. If you jurnos think pitso and safa are incompetent, please look into the mirrors urself you'll c that you are also incompetent. And if you by any means promote the idea of pitso beign fired, please also clean up your house cause it is not clean at all. And wena kick-off you are worse cause you even fail sometimes to get your spelling right.

Marcus : 2011-10-10 18:13

Look at that face!.The face of a loser. Who am i kidding? This guy and his cowardly tactics are the reason why we are in this situation..instead of being passionate about winning games ,hes passionate about his favourite art form which is drawing. Im still asking myself why ddnt he go for the kill against siera leone JUST to make sure we qualify cleanly instead of horrifying us wit his 4 defensive midfield substitutions. Make no mistake pitso has coaching abilities and he learned from the likes of ted dumitru and parreira,but he has to stop being scared of implementing tactics complete with a REAL winning mentality!.

sibusiso biyela : 2011-10-10 18:16

we embarased by the way bafana bafana played but mostly Safa leadership raised some questions by not knowing the Caf rules.

ophezulu : 2011-10-10 18:24

What happened to the best runner up option ?

♫►Kheuzen: 2011-10-10 18:37

We blacks lets admit it. Re tsoafa ho bala-we are lazy to read. that's why yu cant find collection of books or even newspapers among blacks coz we are lazy to read, but we too much know to yadayada. Nematandani is "stil" lazy to read a one line regulation of 14.1. Com'on SA we celebrated defeat live on TV world-wide, what a shame.
and to my fellow bloggers please admit it that SA officially didn't qualify-SAFA is fighting a lost case.
follow this link to read on page 6 //http://www.cafonline.com/userfiles/file/Regulation/Reglements%20CAN%202012%20English.pdf
its a lost case. Best goal difference comes as 14.2

♫►Kheuzen: 2011-10-10 18:38

and please note ###Between the concerned teams

olebeng: 2011-10-10 18:40

hey bafwethu u cn blame Pitso,safa or the boys bt caf is a reall amature, from wen the team that lost 2 games qualify more than a team that lost 1 game,hhaibo, lets b realistic here, caf sucks i think safa must withdraw participation in caf tournaments we must join eaurope or brazil

Bucselona : 2011-10-10 18:40

Pitso must go & coach Zebras! He is obsessed with Parker, Majoro, Khune, useless captain shaba & yeye! These useless & overated ladies caused the country a huge embarrasement! I don't want 2 mention the antics by sister khune, the dance leader captain 4 Saterday's show! Sister Parker yena we don't knw which position she plays.

olebeng: 2011-10-10 18:47

way forwad, pls Pitso bring those quick 1 twoz Perreria left, we were sure that if we cn gt sm1 to bury chances, nw it seems as its difficult 2 create as many chances as we cn, n ada thing u introduced Somma 2 me he cn play, put Killer under preassure, n games lyk the 1 of sa****ay needs power play at tyms. having killer n somma twinning upfront would shake any deffence, reconsider him again, mandla in randburg

bawa: 2011-10-10 18:52

Don't cry over spit milk, the rules for the qualifiers had been set out by CAF some time before the qualifiers even started.THANKS.WE KILLED NOBODY.

KALCA: 2011-10-10 19:00

Guys let us b culm n take d situation as it is as south africans. all s.a failed to interprit d rules let us b honest. Now we hv U-23 to represent our country in Egypt let's gv dem support they need

LordJerry : 2011-10-10 19:31

Mamadou Gay explained it better. National team is not a place to groom coaches go to vodacom leagues for that s.h.it. Operation Ruud Krol to Bafana is in full swing finish and klaar. Football 101 was mastered at the University of Orlando.

Mondli Makhunga : 2011-10-10 19:48

Well, its time to let Pitso go people. Its time for us as South Africans to think if we want this guy to waste our time with 2014 dreams of which we wont qualify for. As long as our bafana team is not winning away and home games we r not going to qualify for any competition. Oh what a shame Pitso is now using poor tricks saying he misinterpreted CAF laws,, well thats crap coz these lawz were deal with in Soccer Africa by Mamadoe and Mlambo and SAFA officials knew that before hand. In a nutshell,, Pitso failed us,, the only way to remedy the situation is to let go maybe AmaZulu FC or some teams in the First division will be interested in his services but he is not a Bafana material.
Look at teams like Ghana, Senegal, Botswana etc. they are not busy interpreting caf laws as they were able to win games home and away of which Pitso failed to do with his team.

To start challenging caf laws is lame and is an absolute waste of time bcoz Pitso will disappoint us further during the Afcon.

kingwuu: 2011-10-10 19:55

One lesson S.A should learn is that in soccer,never play for a draw,no matter the consequences,play to win

Mnyango : 2011-10-10 19:55

SAFA = South African Fools Association

Mr T: 2011-10-10 20:33

SAFA must go ahead,we want justice in this matter.thrs no such rule in football.from whr?

The Ghost: 2011-10-10 20:42

This is just an attempt to save face ... we lost let's leave it at that and look to the future. One thing is for certain though and that is Pitso is NOT up to the task of being a national coach; I mean a coach who celebrates a draw like it's a win has to have his head examined.

KidKudu7: 2011-10-10 20:59

Pitso, Khune, Nematandani & co must leave Bafana Bafana period.

vizmike : 2011-10-10 21:00

justice must be done i am all heads behind safa. This rule is pathetic, it simply shows how caf officials are less-knowledgeable about football. This rule was supposed to take place only if we had a similar goal difference with niger and sierra leone. This is a shame, eeeeuh hayi caf uyasihlaza kwedini. Siphantsi kocinzelelo eMzantsi Africa yhini kangaka madoda.Mfxm...sukaaaah!

KidKudu7: 2011-10-10 21:01

Pitso must go, period.

brian : 2011-10-10 21:19

pitso must go bring in guus hiddink

FrankT: 2011-10-10 21:47

I don't know what is more funny here , The con-artist songoma stalking SAFA for hundreds of thousands of rands allegedly owed to him or SAFA's momement of embarassment to the whole world .If our players knew on sa****ay what they know now I am sure they could have pressed more upfront to get a goal , but that did not happen because the entire leadership of SAFA including the coaching staff misiterpreted the rules and as the result mis-informed the players on the field not to score, as if that was not enough they allow these players to go and celebrate " WHAT A JOKE "

Bonga : 2011-10-10 22:01

I hv to agree with Kaizer Motaung dat SAFA is chasing a wild goose! They hv no case here; rules are rules. SAFA failed the nation. They r now looking for a scapegoat so as to fool the nation. Kirsten; SAFA management n Pitso SA is waiting for yo resignation letters!

2shot: 2011-10-10 22:07

B4 people make noise about being robbed by CAF, they shud relook at the ACN 2010 in Angola, cos Mali and Algeria finished on same points and even thou Mali had a better goal difference Algeria made it to the quarter finals due to better head to head performance. So these rules are not anything new to African football

2shot: 2011-10-10 22:14

B4 people make noise about being robbed by CAF, they shud relook at the ACN 2010 in Angola, cos Mali and Algeria finished on same points and even thou Mali had a better goal difference Algeria made it to the quarter finals due to better head to head performance. So these rules are not anything new to African football

2shot: 2011-10-10 22:16

B4 people make noise about being robbed by CAF, they shud relook at the ACN 2010 in Angola, cos Mali and Algeria finished on same points and even thou Mali had a better goal difference Algeria made it to the quarter finals due to better head to head performance. So these rules are not anything new to African football

2shot: 2011-10-10 22:24

B4 people make noise about being robbed by CAF, they shud relook at the ACN 2010 in Angola, cos Mali and Algeria finished on same points and even thou Mali had a better goal difference Algeria made it to the quarter finals due to better head to head performance. So these rules are not anything new to African football

Tza: 2011-10-10 23:42

safa, just let it go, rules r rules nd dt wont change, ul only bring more pain 2 d nation. just apologise 2 d nation and we al move on

coach2coach: 2011-10-10 23:42

NFT- new football transformation is not say a lot now becoz they have failed, Danny Jordan, Nonkonyane, madla mazibuko all of them are not saying **** now. Give SAFA to Khoza and see magic. Iron Duke is SA god of football.

Khoza he he khoza ha ha where are they now.

Mr Iron Duke Remain silent on this one they will appeal for years to come. Where is Danny with his manskaap NFT

Motlokoa : 2011-10-10 23:57

Am sure tht Dr Khoza(the toothless one) backed by Mr Motaung(the chubaba daddy of all time)are laughing thier lungs out seing this circus of an organization let by This Kristina Betch behaving like 10yrs olds n embarasing the nation together with those moronic idiots who Hate him for being the best football administrator in SA.

With the current Sufer leadership of clueless people n their BEE coach we r not going anywhere,,,i can safely say in BOLD we are not going to qualify for BRAZIL 2014,mark my words gud people.

Sufer n Pinyo must just do the Honourable thing n resing ASAP.

Motlokoa : 2011-10-11 00:25

The less said about Khune Majaivane the better cos this is what he does on wekely basis at club level n he alwys get away with it n morons aplaud him for this unsporting n unprofesional behaviour.

Pity Qgubule is not internationaly recognised n Khune got it wrong at the national expense n i bet he was motivated by this clueless,big headed,arrogant palooka called Pitso ya manyala.

With the way we play we dnt deserve to qualify for any tornament cos we r pathetic n the only thing we are gud at is defending the entire match,,,this is Supersport in the making if u remember how they employed defensive tactics during pitso's tenure n they won nothing until Gavin Hunt came thru.

Gazlam: 2011-10-11 00:25

In all this l like the fact that Mzansi ppl have spent quality time on their calculators and gained some research skills. All thanks to Pitso the coach who plays for a draw. Continuity is crucial in soccer,l guess Mzansi continues with under-achieving coaches.

Gazlam: 2011-10-11 00:30

Honestly if we go ahead with our blatant arrogance Zebra will embarrass us..2014 will be a nitemare.

Borangoma: 2011-10-11 00:35

14.1 Greater number of points obtained in the matches between the concernedteams;
14.2. Best goal difference in the matches between the concerned teams;
14.3. Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the concerned teams;
14.4. Greater number of away goals scored in the direct matches between the concerned teams;
14.5. Goal difference in all the group matches;
14.6. Greatest number of goals scored in all the group matches;
14.7. A drawing of lots by the Organising Committee of CAF.

Therefore, in application of rule 14.1 CAF has considered only results of matches between the concerned teams, i.e. Niger, South Africa and Sierra Leone (discounting Egypt as the bottom team with 5 points - hence not concerned anymore), resulting in the following ranking based on 4 matches played by each teams concerned:
- Niger: 6 points
- South Africa : 5 points
- Sierra Leone : 5 points.

Niger is therefore qualified to the final phase.

KidKudu7: 2011-10-11 02:42

SAFA should just leave CAF alone...its a waste of time & money now.

Michael : 2011-10-11 06:42

Safa shld stop covering up for Pitso's stupidity,had he done his home work he wld knwn the rule existed,Nigeria lost out this way the previous afcon,and Barca 1nz lost da title to madrid on a head 2 head,if my memory serves me correct the clause in pitso's contract stipulates that he qualifies for the afcon,so he can bid us farewell now like de villiers

Samuel: 2011-10-11 06:49

SAFA must let this go if they are hoping to qualify from the protest, if there were teams that suffered from this role before, Bafana must not qualify this way then. It will be a further embarrasment and the nation won't be proud of this, wew will be ridiculed by the our counter parts in Africa, who really do not like us that much(truth be told). If your protest if to correct this weird rule for future purposes then go ahead. Football rules are not suppose to be interpreted like a chess game, but they should remain natural and simple.

PLEASE LET PISTO GO, HE DOES NOT DESERVE TO BE BAFANA COACH, IF NEED TO FURTHER EXPERIMENT, PLEASE GIVE HIM THE UNDER 17 NATIONAL TEAM TO GROW WITH IT. FOR NOW GIVE THE NATION EPHRAIM SHAKES MASHABA.

Mk : 2011-10-11 06:50

I mean the law cud hv also benefited bb.

brazilitto : 2011-10-11 06:55

Who can fire pitso. Daddy mantandane is a prostitute who sells his soul to the devil. We all know where dis **** started. Danny Jordan was working for de iron duke, as a ceo he was getting too much attention. He ended up thinking lyk a big chief of south african football. He form dis shid alliance with his political buddies to oust the toothless( iron duke).
My question to all SA fan is. If Dr Khoza can turn the psl into a best and richest ligi in africa, on the top ten in the world. Y he was not the ryt person to lead safa.

Death by yellow

callies2010: 2011-10-11 08:19

hei....hei...now you want to change the rules because you failed to qualify?Even the stupid Pitso is misinterpreting the the rules,Safa as a whole must resigh together with their domkop Pitso Mosimane.If you failed you failed and you want to cover your embarrasment,sis mane...nxe...ag

dlhamaga : 2011-10-11 10:23

fu..ck ki

dlhamaga : 2011-10-11 10:32

if we let pitso 2 go, who is gonna succeed hm? I cn promise 2 all of u that i will the first n the biggest critic of that coach, it will b worse if he is a whiteman! Phambili ngoPitso phambili!! Phambili with a blackman phambili??

ninii herself: 2011-10-11 11:49

Hahaha just like they were serious about the sangoma...

ninii herself: 2011-10-11 12:00

Hahaha just like they were serious about the sangoma...

F 4 LIFE: 2011-10-11 17:15

Hey Pitso should not think we expect him to get a better lose e.g like would hv Niger won at Cairo and SA win at Leons,still he was suppose to answer from dat and be dismissed if possible as he would failed to compete with African teams. 2014 we expect him to be a best coach in de world by winning world cup not jst qualifing.Stop comerflashing things here.we pay lot of money (tax) for these ppl to win

Malakane: 2011-10-12 07:58

Safa must just disband and swallow their pride,its purely Stupidity and Ignorance what they did.