World football governing body Fifa has declared South Africa’s protest against Ghana inadmissible.
This means Ghana’s qualification to the playoffs of the African qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup has been legitimized.
The South African Football Association’s protest against the Black Stars’ 1-0 win over the Bafana Bafana was not lodged properly as spelt out by the Ghana Football Association in its response to the protest.
The Fifa verdict on Friday said: “The protest lodged by South Africa has been declared inadmissible by the Disciplinary Committee as it did not meet the requirements foreseen under art. 46 of the Fifa Disciplinary Code and art. 14 of the Regulations of the Preliminary Competition of the Fifa World Cup 2022. The decision is subject to appeal.”
The mentioned articles say: “Unless otherwise stipulated in this article, protests shall be submitted in writing to the Fifa Match Commissioner within two hours of the match in question and followed up with a full written report, including a copy of the original protest, to be sent by email to the Fifa general secretariat within 24 hours of the end of the match, otherwise they shall be disregarded.”
South Africa did not lodge a complaint within the stipulated time but only did so verbally to the match commission.
However, Ghana will know its opponent of the playoff round for the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers on January 26, 2022.
The national team of the West African country finished top of Group G of the African qualifiers last month and hence secured a spot in the playoffs.
Following a meeting between CAF and FIFA on Thursday, the two football governing bodies have agreed that the draw for the playoff round will be on January 26.
According to the President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, the last FIFA Rankings will be used during the pairings.
“The CAF Executive Committee met and decided that the last FIFA Rankings in November will be used for the World Cup Draws,” the NFF boss said.
Ghana remains confident of making it to the 2022 FIFA World Cup after missing the last edition in Russia.