The Ghanaian Football Association has written to FIFA in an attempt prevent their crunch FIFA World Cup qualifying from being played in South Africa.
The Ethiopian FA had confirmed that their home match against the Black Stars was moved to South Africa after the Bahir Dar Stadium, where Ethiopia was thumped 3-1 by South Africa last month, was banned by CAF and FIFA.
South Africa, though, had no say in the matter as correspondence seen by iDiski Times is showing, Velile Mnyandu reports in this week’s newspaper.
“CAF club licensing has made an inspection visit on Bahir Dar national stadium and CAF club licensing department has decided to ban the stadium from hosting international matches. As a result the EFF is forced to play outside Ethiopia,” Bahir Limenih, Secretary of the Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) wrote.
“For this reason, the Ethiopian Football Federation, would like to request the South African Football Association (SAFA) to let us play our World Cup qualifier match day five in SA in the stadium where CAF has given approval.”
However, Ghana’s FA don’t seem happy at all to play their important qualifier in South Africa, the country of their Group G rivals and have urged FIFA to intervene to “ensure fairness prevails in the remaining two group matches”.
“Following Ethiopia Football Association request to have their World Cup qualifier against Ghana in South Africa, the Ghana Football Association last Friday wrote to the world’s football governing body to ensure that there is fair play in the last two matches.
“Ghana and South Africa are separated by one point leading to the last two world cup group matches. It is therefore shocking that the Ethiopia Football Association will seek to take their home match against Ghana to South Africa.
“The Ghana Football Association has indicated to FIFA that the sporting integrity of the World Cup matches must not be compromised and must ensure that fairness prevail in the remaining two group matches.
“The GFA is of the view that it is wrong for a game of this magnitude to be played in a country which is in the same group and in contention for the top spot and urge CAF and FIFA to ensure that fair play is practiced to the latter in this matter.
“The Ghana Football Association will continue to engage FIFA/CAF to ensure that the right thing is done so that the competitive nature of the qualifiers is maintained.
“Finally, due to the complexity surrounding this match, FIFA/CAF have been urged to confirm as soon as possible the venue of the match to enable us to plan our logistics especially player call ups and visa acquisition for the players who are scattered across the world.”
Ghana face Ethiopia on 11 November, while South Africa host Zimbabwe on the same date. Currently Bafana Bafana sit one point above the Black Stars on the log.
