2026 World Cup: Why South Africa might suffer point deductions

Recent reports indicate that South Africa, as leaders of group C in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, might be on the verge of suffering a three-point deduction.

It is safe to say that the entire group C ranking for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers might just turn on its head with the table topper South Africa in the crossfire and at the risk of suffering point deduction as speculations and reports reveal an error made by the Bafana Bafana of South Africa in their recent world cup qualifier against Lesotho.

It was reported that a player of South Africa, Teboho Mokoena was supposed to be suspended for the fixture against Lesotho in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers as a result of the two yellow cards on he picked up on match day two vs Benin Republic and match day four vs Zimbabwe.

In the FIFA World Cup yellow card rules implemented for the 2022 edition of the tournament, when a player receives two yellow cards in subsequent matches it automatically leads to a suspension in the third consecutive fixture. It remains to be seen if this law will apply to the 2026 World Cup qualifiers as well.

Eyebrows have however been raised and the football community actively awaits a response from CAF or FIFA itself.

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