Former leading and CAF referee Ace Ncobo has revealed damning statistics behind the controversial refereeing decisions on display during Bafana Bafana’s defeat to Ghana.
South Africa crashed out of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers on Sunday after suffering a 1-0 defeat to Ghana in Cape Coast, courtesy of a controversial goal from the penalty spot from Black Stars captain Andre Ayew
Senegalese match referee Maguette N’Diaye was widely criticised for his decision to award the spot-kick, with replays showing a lack of contact between Rushine De Reuck and Daniel Amartey, and his performance was subsequently protested by the South Africa Football Association.
Speaking on SuperSport TV on Monday, former referee Ace Ncobo slammed N’Diaye’s showing with the whistle and supported SAFA’s protest with alarming statistics on the decisions made during the match.
“It took me five hours and 17 minutes to analyse just the first half,” Ncobo said on SuperSport’s Extra Time show.
“I’m doing the second half only tomorrow because I got the footage this morning.
“Article 18 of the FIFA disciplinary code speaks in detail about manipulation of a match.
“Many people think you can just write to FIFA and say ‘no this referee was poor so let’s replay the match’.
“No it doesn’t work like that, you have to prove that the result of the match was manipulated.”
Ncobo then listed what the FIFA rules state in the event of manipulation of a match.
FIFA article 18.1 in the rulebook states: Anyone who directly or indirectly, by an act or an omission, unlawfully influences or manipulates the course, result or any other aspect of a match and/or competition or conspires or attempts to do so by any means shall be sanctioned with a minimum five-year ban on taking part in any football-related activity as well as a fine of at least CHF 100,000. In serious cases, a longer ban period, including a potential lifetime ban on taking part in any football-related activity, shall be imposed.
Then the following subsection details the consequences if an individual were to be found guilty of the above-mentioned paragraph.
FIFA article 18.2 If a player or official engages in behaviour described in paragraph 1, the club or association to which the player of official belongs may be sanctioned with the forfeiting of the match in question or may be declared ineligible to participate in a different competition, provided the integrity of the competition is protected. Additional disciplinary measures may be imposed.
“How do you differentiate poor performance from manipulation, well this is what I discovered when I analysed just the first half of the match,” Ncobo continued.
“25 out of the 28 [decisions] given went against Bafana. 89.3% of incorrect decisions, leave out the correct decisions.
“And only 10.7% of incorrect decisions went against the home team [Ghana].
“What is a leg that SAFA can stand on is that there is a pattern of bias and when you can establish that there is that pattern.
“You can establish that there was manipulation of the result.”
Source: SuperSport.com
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