Ncobo says evidence shows referees ‘unlawfully manipulated’ Bafana qualifier

Former referee Ace Ncobo says he has compiled a report that shows a clear “pattern of bias” from Senegalese referee Maguette Ndiaye and his assistants in the 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifier between Bafana Bafana and Ghana at the Cape Coast Stadium on Sunday.

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Bafana ended up losing the game 1-0, with Ghana going through to the final qualifying round at their expense by the narrowest of margin. Both teams finished tied on 13 points, but the Black Stars went through by virtue of having scored seven goal to Bafana’s six in Group G.

The South African Football Association (Safa), however, are clearly incensed by how the match was officiated, with Ndiaye making a number of strange decisions, including awarding a penalty to Ghana in the 32^nd minute, which Andre Ayew converted for the only goal of the game.

Safa have sent a letter of complaint to Fifa and the Confederation of African Football, asking them to investigate the performance of Ndiaye and his fellow assistants.

Ncobo’s report is included in the complaint, and he explained yesterday that after hours of trawling through the footage of the game, he found that 30 of the 33 incorrect decisions in the match went against Bafana.

“If a referee has a poor day at the office it is usually a 50/50 split (in incorrect decisions for either side),” said Ncobo.

“Even a 55/45 split is not regarded as bias, and even with a 60/40 split, that is a slight bias and you can’t be holding press conferences and writing to Fifa. Only when you reach 70/30 do you start looking at extreme bias. Of the 33 incorrect decisions, 30 were against South Africa, that is 90.9 percent of incorrect decisions (against South Africa).

“The submission to Fifa is not necessarily about the penalty. It is a submission to say the match officials displayed a deliberate pattern of bias and in doing so unlawfully manipulated the course of the match, which also impacted on the result.

“Fifa cannot be a custodian of fair play and sit back and say it is fine for (there to be) such a high level of deliberate bias. We are hoping that the powers that be at Fifa will also go through the report. Even if they drop to 70 percent (of incorrect decisions against Bafana), that is still extreme bias, and we hope they will find in favour of Safa’s request to have the match replayed.”