An administrative oversight has placed Bafana Bafana’s 2026 World Cup dream in jeopardy. This is a tale that sounds all too familiar for South African soccer lovers.
The South African Football Association (Safa) has been blasé in its reaction to a Fifa investigation relating to Bafana Bafana fielding an ineligible player.
Safa’s reaction has been “it’s okay if we’re docked three points, we’ll still be top of the standings in Group C”. But the team won’t be, if found guilty.
They would be docked three log points, and the 2-0 win earned in the game in question, replaced with an automatic 3-0 defeat – a five-goal, goal-difference swing. That is catastrophic.
Bafana played Teboho Mokoena during a 2026 World Cup qualifier against Lesotho. The match took place in March 2025 and Bafana Bafana secured a comfortable 2-0 victory.
During that World Cup qualifying clash with neighbouring Lesotho a few months ago, midfield maestro Mokoena was supposed to sit out due to yellow card accumulation.
He received a yellow card in November 2023, against Benin. His second caution came in June 2024, versus Zimbabwe.
Fifa rules for their tournaments state that a player who accumulates two yellow cards over two different matches is automatically suspended for the next match.
Safa and Bafana Bafana missed this technicality and fielded Mokoena, who is a key figure in the Hugo Broos-coached team.
Safe CEO Lydia Monyepao. (Photo: Sydney Seshibedi / Gallo Images)
“We have received communication from Fifa about an investigation that they have launched in terms of the Lesotho match where Teboho Mokoena was fielded,”said Safa chief executive Lydia Monyepao.
“We are not really worried [about potentially being docked points]. Our focus right now is to ensure that Bafana Bafana gets maximum points, come October. Because whatever happens, be it docking of points or whatever, if we get six points come October nothing else will matter,” the CEO stated.
However, if they are indeed docked points and punished by Fifa for illegally fielding Mokoena, the consequences will be very dire for South Africa. It will matter as they will drop to second spot in the mini-league, by virtue of goal difference.
Bafana Bafana currently lead Group C. Broos’ men have collected 17 points from their eight qualifiers. They are closely followed by Benin, who have amassed 14 points. The South Africans have a goal difference of +8, while Benin sits on +4. Goal difference is calculated by subtracting goals a team has conceded from goals it has scored.
Should Fifa rule against South Africa at the end of the investigation, it would also significantly affect their goal difference. The number would drop down to just +3.
Relegating them to second in the mini-league and requiring zero room for error. Importantly, it means Bafana Bafana must also depend on Rwanda and Nigeria to take points off the Cheetahs – in case the South Africans cannot overturn the goal difference deficit in their final two qualifying fixtures.
It very much is something to worry about.
Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos. (Photo: Philip Maeta / Gallo Images)
Déjà vu
If you don’t remember Bafana Bafana’s shambolic 2012 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier, that is likely because your brain has suppressed that traumatic and embarrassing memory. For your own benefit.
South Africa’s players and technical team infamously celebrated wildly on the back of a 0-0 draw versus Sierra Leone. The two teams were left tied on nine points apiece as a result, alongside Niger. Bafana Bafana thought they had qualified due to their superior goal difference when compared to their two rivals in the group.
As it turned out, someone had not done their job, hence South Africa interpreted the rules incorrectly.
Bafana Bafana assumed that rules for Confederation of African Football (CAF) competitions were the same as those used in Fifa tournaments. This was not the case.
Fifa-facilitated tournaments primarily use goal difference to decide the winner when teams are tied on points during group stages. CAF, on the other hand, places priority on head-to-head results in case of a points deadlock in a mini league.
For that 2012 Afcon qualification campaign, it was Niger that collected the most points in matches between the three nations. As a result, they qualified and South African soccer was left with egg on its face.
Safa tried to argue its case. But it was in vain. The fault was South Africa’s own as they failed to do due diligence in relation to the rules.
It’s been 14 years since that embarrassing oversight happened. Now a similarly dark cloud looms over Bafana Bafana in 2025.
Amateur
The latest amateurish administrative oversight threatens Bafana Bafana’s first participation at a senior Fifa men’s World Cup since the country hosted the tournament in 2010.
After months of uncertainty and increasing speculation, Fifa has finally confirmed a probe into the Mokoena debacle. Safa chief executive Monyepao told journalists as much on Thursday, 18 September.
The Fifa disciplinary code reads: “If a team fields a player who is not eligible to participate (due to suspension, registration issues, nationality, etc.), the match is automatically forfeited. The default result is a 3-0 loss, unless the actual result was even more disadvantageous to the offending team.”
If retrospectively sanctioned by Fifa, Bafana Bafana’s 2-0 victory over Lesotho would be erased, stripping them of those three points. They would also lose the two goals scored against their neighbours, in addition to suffering the 3-0 technical loss.
Safa president Danny Jordaan. (Photo: Gallo Images / OJ Koloti)
Self-made mess
During an appearance before the Portfolio Committee on Sport, Art and Culture in June 2025, Safa’s hierarchy pointed the finger at Bafana Bafana team manager Vincent Tseka for the administrative blunder.
Safa president Danny Jordaan told Parliament that they would address the matter and dish out the relevant punishment to Tseka as soon as Fifa has made its ruling.
“There will be accountability, but we have to wait for all the reports to come in,” Jordaan stated.
As Fifa considers the matter, with the most likely result a sanction for South Africa, there will be frustration within the Bafana Bafana changing room. The players have largely done their job on field, but their World Cup dream is now being threatened by off-field inaptitude.
Missed opportunities
Broos’ charges will also be rueing the missed opportunities they had to dispatch Nigeria during a 1-1 draw at the beginning of September 2025. If they had collected maximum points against the Super Eagles, there would be no need for calculators in the final round of qualifying.
Bafana Bafana close off their qualification campaign with clashes against Zimbabwe (away) and Rwanda (at home) in early October. Only the top teams in each of the nine groups qualify directly for the next year’s World Cup. The four best runners-up have a backdoor opportunity via the murky path of intercontinental playoffs. DM
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