GFA EXCO member Randy Abbey reacts to South Africa’s request to have Ghana clash replayed

Executive Council member of the Ghana Football Association, Dr Randy Abbey has reacted to South Africa’s request to have their World Cup qualifier against Ghana replayed.

The South Africa Football Association (SAFA) is set to lodge a complaint to both CAF and FIFA for their 2022 World Cup qualifier against Ghana to be replayed.

South Africa are unhappy with the performance of Senegalese referee Ndiaye Maguette after he awarded the Black Stars a penalty, that was converted by Andre Ayew as Ghana reached the play-offs.

SAFA CEO believes the defeat to Ghana was caused by the Senegalese referee Maguette Ndiaye which ended the country’s dreams of playing at the 2022 World Cup.

“We approached the match commissioner and informed him of our intention to lodge a formal complaint to CAF and Fifa about the questionable officiating during the match,” said Safa CEO Tebogo Motlanthe after the match.

“It was not only the incident of the penalty; it was not in isolation and we will commission an expert in the form of a retired referee to analyse the performance of the referee. We will use our World Cup qualifying match against Senegal in 2017 that was replayed to put our argument forward,”

But according to Randy Abbey the results of the match involving Ghana and South Africa cannot be overturned and insisted replay is impossible.

“I am not worried about the threats of the South Africans. It is within their rights to protest. But it won’t go anywhere. It’s just sour grapes. No law can overturn a concluded match. The conduct or ethics of the referee could be questioned but no law can overturn the results of our match. I don’t need to give any assurance”

“The results of the match involving Ghana and South Africa cannot be changed and replay is impossible, South Africa has no case”

“We had a similar situation against Uganda in 2018, Referee Benett denied us a clear penalty, our protests didn’t change anything” he said.