FIFA to cover costs of Senegal replay

Fifa has agreed to cover the costs of South Africa’s World Cup qualifier replay against Senegal in November.

The match originally took place in November 2016, when Bafana Bafana emerged 2-1 winners courtesy of some controversial decisions from referee Joseph Lamptey.

The Ghanaian official has since been found guilty of match-fixing and banned for life, prompting FIFA to take the unusual step of ordering a replay — a game they will now pay for.

“They have confirmed to us that they will pick up the tab of that match that was played on November 12‚ 2016‚“ South Africa Football Association (SAFA) CEO Dennis Mumble is quoted in Sowetan. “They realise that we were not at fault and these are wasted costs for us. FIFA have confirmed that they will pay.

“For any international match‚ it depends on the venue and the location‚ but it’s a minimum of R5million that we spend to put a single Bafana Bafana match together. It involves the stadium hire‚ it involves transportation‚ the further out the match goes from Johannesburg we must fly out even the visiting team to that destination.”

The replay will be played on the date set aside for the annual Nelson Mandela Challenge, a friendly used to honour the late president and raise funds for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.

Mumble adds that they have asked FIFA to make a contribution to the Fund to make up for the lost revenue from the match.

“We will ask FIFA to please take into consideration the fact that we make a substantial contribution to the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund every year and they have a hospital standing up that needs operating costs to be raised. We are going to ask FIFA to please make that donation to the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.”