World Cup 2022 Qualifying: South Africa 'robbed' against Ghana, seek 'replay' - SAFA Chief Mothlante

South Africa feels "robbed" and are ready to make a "formal complaint" about match officials' "questionable decisions" made in Sunday's lone goal fall to Ghana, says SA Football Association Chief.

South Africa National Football Team head coach Hugo Broos during a presss conference. Photo: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images/Getty Images

South Africa would have reached the third and final round of African qualifying for the 2022 World Cup if they had drawn the game, however, Ghana clinched victory with a penalty.

Tebogo Mothlante, Chief Executive of South Africa Football Association (Safa) claimed, "the match officials have decided the game, which is not what is supposed to happen.

"We will be writing to both Caf [the Confederation of African Football] and [world governing body] Fifa - firstly to investigate how the game was handled and secondly to challenge some of these decisions.

"We have already registered with the match commissioner that we will be making a formal complaint."

Ghana's lone goal victory against South Africa enabled them reach the African World Cup play-offs, expelling the Bafana Bafana from the top of the group with goals scored.

The Black Stars were awarded the penalty following a slight contact on Leicester City midfielder Daniel Amartey by defender Rushine de Reuck, who got booked for the foul.

Mothlante further said: "We are very disheartened by their actions and we can't let it destroy the players - when we have the chance to challenge, we will challenge.

"We feel very much robbed because it is not an isolated incident of a penalty. There are just a lot of questionable decisions by match officials and we will get an expert to dissect other incidents, so we can make a strong case."

The capacity for matches to be replayed does exist and South Africa are fully aware of this.

According to bbcsport:

They [South Africa] were forced to replay a 2018 World Cup qualifier against Senegal after the referee was found guilty of match manipulation.

The South Africans had originally beaten Senegal 2-1, with Fifa later concluding that Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey - 'with the sole purpose of facilitating a minimum number of goals to make certain bets successful - clearly took two wrong decisions'.

This included the award of a penalty to Bafana Bafana when Senegal's Kalidou Koulibaly was adjudged to have handled the ball, despite replays showing it had hit his knee.

Fifa took the unusual step of ordering the game to be replayed. South Africa lost 2-0 as Senegal qualified for the World Cup in Russia.

Mothlante added: "Of course we are looking at the precedent whereby Fifa ordered us to replay Senegal and we think that if justice needs to be served the same decision should be taken against this Ghana game."