Confusion: Kamohelo Mokotjo
This week Bafana Bafana went about their normal duties of preparing for Saturday’s and Tuesday’s friendly matches against Guinea-Bissau and Angola in Durban and Buffalo City respectively, and simply ignored the storm swirling around their World Cup qualifying 2-1 win over Senegal in November.
On Monday, Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey was banned for life by world football’s governing body Fifa for match-fixing.
“The official was found guilty of unlawfully influencing match results,” Fifa said in a statement.
“Fifa will continue with its ongoing efforts to combat match manipulation through a variety of initiatives, which include the monitoring of international betting and a confidential reporting system with a dedicated integrity hotline and email address.”
Fifa has indicated, however, that further action will be taken regarding Lamptey’s handling of Bafana’s qualifier against Senegal.
“Further information concerning the South Africa vs Senegal match in question will be provided once the decision becomes final and binding,” Fifa said.
South African officials now fear that the world controlling body could force the match to be replayed.
Lamptey awarded South Africa a penalty while television replays clearly showed that he had badly erred as the ball had, in fact, struck Senegalese defender Kalidou Koulibaly on his knee. Thulani Hlatshwayo then tucked away the penalty to give the hosts a lead in a match they eventually won 2-1.
The Senegalese Football Federation filed a stinging complaint with Fifa about Lamptey’s general handling of the match and now that the body has delivered its verdict on the referee, the Senegalese say they are satisfied.
The Confederation of African Football had already slapped a three-month ban on the controversial match official over his conduct during the 2018 World Cup qualifier.
Meanwhile, the South African Football Association (Safa) has still not settled on a coach to lead the country’s football team beyond the 2018 World Cup, following the sacking of Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba. Safa has failed to reach an agreement with several wannabe coaches, but the show must go on regardless.
Caretaker coach Owen da Gama, a former deputy of Mashaba’s, has been tasked with caretaker duties and has assembled an excitingly strong squad of 25 players — including some who were in effect exiled by Mashaba — for the two upcoming international friendly matches against Guinea-Bissau and Angola.
A perfect mixture of the old and the new get the ball rolling against Guinea-Bissau at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Saturday and then, on Tuesday evening, line up against the Palancas Negras (sable antelopes) of Angola at the Buffalo City Stadium in East London.
Da Gama has not only retained the core of the team that defeated Senegal but has also brought in a few in-form players in the domestic game. He has also brought in two 18-year-olds who starred in South Africa’s qualification for the Fifa U-20 World Cup finals in South Korea — Phakamani Mahlambi and Luther Singh.
“The aim of choosing these two friendlies,” Da Gama said as soon as he touched down in Durban, “is that in our 2018 Fifa World Cup campaign we are scheduled to play back-to-back fixtures against Cape Verde.
“Now, Guinea-Bissau and Angola are composed of players campaigning in the lower divisions of the Portuguese league. In addition, they are the closest thing to fellow Portuguese-speaking Cape Verde and the idea of the friendlies is to give our players a feel of what they should expect from Cape Verde.”
There was still uncertainty about the availability of Kamohelo Mokotjo, the Netherlands-based midfielder brought back into the fold by Da Gama after he had taken up Dutch citizenship, even though Safa president Danny Jordaan was confident he would be cleared to play for his native country.
“He was born here,” said Jordaan, “and has already played for South Africa, so why create confusion where there is none? I think he took Dutch citizenship to enable him to move easily across Europe for employment purposes and nothing more.”
It would be interesting to see how Mokotjo, hailed by the Dutch media as the best passer of the ball in the Eredivisie, handles the holding role alongside Hlompho Kekana, Dean Furman or even Andile Jali.
And although there is excitement about the inclusion of another exile — Kermit Erasmus — there is a lot of anticipation about the possible inclusion of free-scoring Cape Town City’s attacking midfielder Lebogang Manyama to see how he handles the step up to a higher level.
In addition, there is the possibility of seeing Mahlambi and Singh, the two outstanding members of the South African U-20 team that has qualified for the Fifa World Cup in Korea in May.
Guinea-Bissau will certainly not be pushovers. It will be the first time that they meet South Africa at any level, yet following an impressive showing at the Africa Cup of Nations finals in Gabon, there is no doubt that they are a strong team.
Angola, on the other hand, have been inconsistent and in desperation have called up former Manchester United striker Manucho Dias and Djalma Campos to add a little spark to their misfiring strike force in the hope that they could inspire the Palancas Negras to turn the tables against the home side.