The South African Football Association (SAFA) can still get punished despite the impressive victory for Bafana Bafana, a former referee exclusively told the Siya crew.
On Friday, Bafana defeated Congo 5-0 in their Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in front of a buzzing Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium crowd in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape.
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However, the South African national team's celebrations were muddied by fans invading the pitch as some supporters failed to obey the rules and joined the players on the field.
Referee Beida Dahane from Mauritania decided to halt the match for more than 10 minutes after the second incident of spectators invading the pitch and there were fears that the official would call the fixture off.
SAFA president Danny Jordaan and the other dignitaries at the venue had to plead with the fans to refrain from their actions while security was strengthened, and thankfully after the match was eventually allowed to continue, then there were no further disruptions.
As experts have continued to interpret the laws in relation to the situation, social media has been abuzz in debating the issue though not without confusion.
In terms of the Regulations of the Africa Cup of Nations, Article 16:19 says, "If the referee is forced to stop the match before the end of the regular time because of pitch invasion or aggression against the visiting team, the host team shall be considered loser and shall be eliminated from the competition, without prejudice to the sanctions provided for in the regulations."
Speaking exclusively to the Siya crew, former PSL referee Faiek Daniels stated that there could indeed be a punishment meted out to SAFA.
"The match is played under CAF and neither the referee nor the opponents or anybody can make any decision. The match commissioner writes a report to CAF, because it's a CAF competition for CAF to decide on any form of intervention. I'm not calling it a punishment because these things do happen anywhere around the world. So, CAF will intervene by looking at the report and say, 'Let's punish Bafana Bafana or SAFA in some way.' But they will never punish you by removing the result of the match, because the match played to a conclusion. If the match was stopped in the middle and they didn't continue, then the disciplinary committee of CAF was going to say the opponents were not responsible for what happened and award the match to them," said Daniels.
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"But in all probability, CAF will punish South Africa with a fine. It can be in the form of monetary fine, and it can also be in the form of indicating that if something similar happens again, Bafana would be removed from that particular confederation," he said.
Meanwhile, Bafana will face Congo in Brazzaville this evening in the second of their AFCON qualifiers, with a chance to qualify for the next year's tournament in Morocco.
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