Former Bafana Bafana of South Africa goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune says someone needs to be held accountable for Teboho Mokoena‘s suspension saga.
Bafana face the possibility of points deductions in their World Cup qualifiers after they fielded Mokoena in a game against Lesotho.
The Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder was supposed to be left out of that match, given that he had accumulated two yellow cards in the qualifiers.
Speaking to Soccer Laduma (via thesouthafrican.com) Khune said the situation reminded him of Bafana’s match with Sierra Leone.
After playing to a draw, South Africa celebrated after 90 minutes thinking that they qualified for 2012 Afcon only to turn out later that they would not proceed to the continental finals owing to a technicality in the qualification criteria.
“When we were playing AFCON qualifiers, I remember we thought we were left with one game. We needed a draw. We celebrated in Nelspruit thinking that we had qualified only to find out someone from SAFA ignored the email from CAF or from FIFA stating that head-to-head means you can’t qualify.
“I’m even having goosebumps now because I’m becoming emotional because of such things. You know, as a federation, you should request such things upfront. You should know, and you should let us as players know before stepping onto the field that there’s a possibility that this might happen or that this might not happen.”
Khune said someone within the Bafana Bafana camp needs to own up and apologise to the nation.
“Same thing that is happening right now, being deducted three points and three goals after so much hard work that was put in; someone must be held accountable. Because we can’t keep on taking 10 steps forward and taking 20 steps backward.
“Someone must be accountable, and someone must come out and say to the nation, ‘I’m sorry that I’ve cost the national team the three points and the three goals’.”
