By Mark Ogagan
Former Super Eagles coach and current manager of Benin’s national team, Gernot Rohr has questioned FIFA’s seeming reluctance to dock World Cup points from South Africa after the country defaulted in a March 2025 fixture.
“It is not normal that we don’t know the points situation on the log table before our games this week,” said the Franco-German, whose team is second behind South Africa in the current standings.
“It is very, very strange. Normally, South Africa should lose three points, and they should go to Lesotho. But nobody knows why they (FIFA) did not take this decision,” Rohr said.
And now, five months after the incident, there’s still no official word from FIFA to clarify the situation.
Incidentally, Rohr was in charge of the Super Eagles when FIFA docked Nigeria three points during the 2018 World Cup qualifiers for fielding Shehu Abdullahi (who was ineligible at the time), in a 1-1 draw against Algeria, .
“We didn’t know he was suspended, and we lost the points in the disciplinary committee,” added Rohr.
With their win still intact, South Africa lead the current Group C standings with 13 points, five ahead of Rwanda and Benin and six ahead of Nigeria, whom they host in a crunch game in Bloemfontein next Tuesday. Lesotho have six points and Zimbabwe sit last on four.
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