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.
Your comments on this story...
Anyway, the way Bafana Bafan performed on Saturday, we don't deserve to qualify.
I would hear if they challenge the law to be reviewed and changed not to think they can win qualification to next year finals while it is clear we are not cheated. We should also look at both side of the coin, yeh we are victims but what about if the same law favoured us not Niger?
SUFFER should let it go and do the honourable thing, that is to give Pitso his package.
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."
So we have a coach who cannot read/intepret something this straight forward! Not surprising that we are not going to AFCON.
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.