Former Ghana Football Association communications director Ibrahim Sannie Daara believes South Africa’s allegations of match-fixing in the wake of the 2022 World Cup qualifier between the two nations, lacks substance.
The ex-GFA spokesman explains why the match is unlikely to be replayed despite the appeal.
South Africa have petitioned the world football governing body, Fifa for a replay of the match on suspicion that the original game on November 14 was fixed, allegedly through Senegalese referee Maguette N’Diaye.
The fixture ended 1-0 in favour of hosts Ghana, the winning goal coming via a penalty highly contested by the 2010 World Cup hosts.
“FFA has something called the Fairly Warning System that looks at the odds of most of the betting companies in the world,” Daara explained on Asempa FM.
“If there are particular betting patterns and there are large stakes, FIFA itself will give a warning that the match is under risk of being manipulated and the match will be called off eventually. If the game is played, Fifa will automatically investigate the game.
“In this case, there was nothing like that. It is SAFA who are making the point that the game was fixed or manipulated but have not provided any evidence whatsoever to back the claim.
“Betting on every match spikes but if there is a predicted scoreline and it has been betted across the world with a large amount of money, that is when people will say there is a suspicion of betting on the game. I will be very surprised if Fifa asks that the match should be replayed.”
Ghana, after the 1-0 win, were placed top of Group G at the end of the African zone second-round qualifiers, enabling a passage to the third and final round on the road to Qatar 2022.
South Africa, on the other hand, will probably have to wait until the 2026 World Cup for a possible first return to the championship since 2010.
Fifa is imminently expected to announce its ruling on the case.
The final round of the African zone qualifiers has been set for March next year, with the play-off draw expected to come off in January, having been rescheduled from its original date of November.