Revealed! Bafana Bafana manager missed Teboho Mokoena's costly yellow card due to 'ice' in 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers with SAFA set to decide Vincent Tseka’s fate

FIFA docked South Africa three points for fielding Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Teboho Mokoena in a March 2025 World Cup qualifier against Lesotho, despite him being suspended. The sanction landed in September, just before Bafana Bafana’s final two fixtures, threatening their qualification hopes.  

Despite the setback, South Africa secured their spot at the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, thanks to a crucial win over Rwanda and a helping hand from Nigeria, who beat Benin. 

Still, the administrative blunder sparked outrage, with mounting pressure on Bafana team manager Vincent Tseka, who now finds himself at the centre of the storm. 

According to Sunday World, Tseka and head of delegation David Molwantwa remain under scrutiny, with their fate set to be decided by a vote from the SAFA National Executive Committee (NEC). 

“Safa NEC member and chairperson of the legal and constitutional affairs committee, Poobie Govindasamy, finalised his report titled ‘investigation report concerning the fielding of Teboho Mokoena in the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifier against Lesotho on 21 March 2025’ and recommended that the matter be finalised by round robin resolution-a vote,” the outlet reports.

However, that recommendation has not been welcomed by a section of the SAFA NEC members with one of them telling Sunday World that it is an “infringement on the SAFA statutes because employee issues are handled by the CEO, and not by the NEC.”

SAFA believes it handled the matter well, calling it as an “administrative oversight, exacerbated by the passage of time” with 16 months passing between Mokoena’s booking and the Lesotho match.

In his defence, Tseka said he missed the player’s booking against Zimbabwe as he had left the dugout to get ice for the team but accepted that he should have done his due diligence. 

“However, he [Tseka] concedes that according to the records, the player was not supposed to play in the match against Lesotho on 21 March 2025 in Polokwane. He deeply regrets any inconvenience… this glaring omission of the bookings of the player caused Safa and the country, and he undertakes to ensure that this mistake does not happen again,” the SAFA report says as quoted by Sunday World.

SAFA CEO Lydia Monyepao says the anomaly was as a result of human error, saying the team manager gets overwhelmed sometimes and that they had hoped to get confirmation from FIFA about player suspensions but it did not happen.

“Safa relied too heavily on external confirmation from FIFA, rather than maintaining proactive internal tracking of disciplinary records,” she said as per the report.

It remains unclear whether the round robin vote will proceed, as several SAFA NEC members have indicated they won’t participate.

They cited an October resolution in Mbombela that already called for action against those responsible for the Teboho Mokoena blunder, as reported by Sunday World.