Sports Writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A major controversy is clouding Group C of the 2026 FIFA World Cup African qualifiers, with Nigeria and Benin publicly demanding that football’s world governing body rule on South Africa’s use of an ineligible player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dispute stems from Bafana Bafana’s November 2023 2-0 victory over Lesotho, in which they fielded midfielder Teboho Mokoena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The player should have been suspended for the match after accumulating two yellow cards in previous group games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the final round of qualifiers set to begin this week, the silence from FIFA has left rival nations in a state of uncertainty over the true group standings and their chances of qualification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Benin coach Gernot Rohr voiced his frustration to Reuters, stating,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is very, very strange. Normally, South Africa should lose three points and they should go to Lesotho. But nobody knows why FIFA has not taken this decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) issued a formal statement echoing the demand, insisting,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe world still awaits FIFA\u2019s decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A FIFA ruling to award a 3-0 forfeit win to Lesotho would drastically alter the group. South Africa would drop from 13 points to 10, throwing the race for qualification wide open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The current Group C standings are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The controversy adds immense pressure to the upcoming fixtures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Warriors of Zimbabwe are set to face Benin in Abidjan on Friday in a must-win match to keep their faint qualification hopes alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Zim GBC News | Global News From An African Perspective\u00a92025<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sports Writer A major controversy is clouding Group C of the 2026 FIFA World Cup African qualifiers, with Nigeria and Benin publicly demanding that football’s world governing body rule on… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8824,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8822\/revisions\/8824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}