In the just-concluded African preliminary qualifying series for the 2022 World Cup, you couldn’t just imagine a more enchanting deja vu, involving Ghana, South Africa and Senegal.
Now, the country of Nelson Mandela is scowling and screeching; and somehow hopes history would repeat itself; and it would somewhat snatch qualification, for the final home-and-away final knockout series, from the set jaws of Ghana.
En route to Russia 2018 World Cup, South Africa had pipped Senegal 2-1 and thought it had qualification wrapped up; and was looking forward to a roll in Vladmir Putin’s vast country. But not so fast!
At the centre of that match was referee Joseph Lamptey, a Ghanaian. After a Senegal protest, FIFA rebuked centre referee Lamptey to have clearly taken two wrong decisions to allegedly facilitate “a minimum number of goals to make certain bets successful.”
FIFA also charged Lamptey with awarding South Africa a phoney penalty, when replays clearly showed the ball hit Senegal’s Kalidou Koulibaly’s knee, not his hand. To cut a long story short, FIFA ordered a replay after which Senegal trounced South Africa, 2-0. Bye-bye Russia to Bafana-Bafana!
But flip to the present. Venue: Cape Coast, Ghana. Ghana vs South Africa. Final group match. Centre referee: Maguette Ndiaye of Senegal!
The last time, it was South Africa vs Senegal. Ghana was centre referee. Now, it was Ghana vs South Africa. Senegal was centre referee! Deja vu?
Now, Tebogo Mothlante, South Africa Football Association (SAFA) chief executive, makes quite a row: we’ve been robbed! He claimed the Senegalese referee awarded Ghana a dubious penalty kick. Ghana’s Daniel Amartey took a dive, he alleged, with minimum contact from South Africa defender Rushine de Reuck, and that fatal blast cost South Africa qualification!
Now, isn’t it all intriguing? The last time, it was a Ghanaian referee gifting South Africa a controversial penalty, to secure a pyrrhic victory over Senegal.
Now, it is a Senegalese referee awarding Ghana another controversial penalty, which earned Kwame Nkrumah’s descendants the minutest of advantages, to qualify them and push South Africa out!
Will the Ghana win prove as fleeting as South Africa’s the last time round? Tebogo Mothlante certainly hopes so! So, he has fired a protest to FIFA — which FIFA has acknowledged — and hopes SA’s debacle the last time would turn glory this time. Well, hope springs eternal!
Still, one dark recurrence, in this Ghana-South Africa-Senegal triangle: referees making controversial calls. The incomparable Pele famously called football “the beautiful game.” No match official should turn it ugly. Meanwhile we await, with bated breath, FIFA’s final call!
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