World Cup
Fifth-placed Lesotho protests South Africa’s fielding of ineligible players
South African publication, Sowetan Live, has reported that the Lesotho Football Association has confirmed it has sent a query to FIFA over the yellow cards accumulated by Bafana Bafana midfielder Teboho Mokoena in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
If Lesotho’s prayers are heard, the match will be forfeited by South Africa with three points deducted and three goals conceded.
Should that happen, following the Match Day 6 results, South Africa’s point haul will be reduced to 10, but will still retain the top position.
Lesotho in the fifth position, with six points, will jump to the second position with nine points.
Last week, South Africa fielded Mokoena in the match which the hosts won 2-0. The fielding of the player is a breach of the regulations for the World Cup qualifying series.
Nigeria currently at fourth with seven points, will sink to the fifth position, taking the place to be vacated by Lesotho.
Mokoena was not listed by South Africa in their Tuesday’s game with Benin Republic.
Mokoena was booked in Bafana’s opening match against Benin in 2023, and the fourth qualifier against Zimbabwe last year, meaning he should have served an automatic one-match ban, according to FIFA’s rule 63 governing World Cup qualifiers.
“The question is, was a rule broken? If yes, we are fully entitled to protest and get the points.
“We were made aware of Mokoena’s bookings and we have since sent a formal inquiry to CAF and FIFA,” the Lesotho FA secretary-general Mokhosi Mohapi was quoted by South Africa’s Sowetan Live as saying.
Continuing, the publication quoted the Lesotho FA secretary as saying that:
“We have heard that Nigeria also want to protest and they too are entitled to that because the result (last Friday) prejudices everyone.
“Suppose it was us who fielded a defaulter and got the points, Bafana would have done the same.”
Mohapi was further quoted as saying that South Africa could not expect to use proximity to Lesotho as a basis not to file a protest.
“Unfortunately, the law is the law and SAFA (South Africa Football Association) should have known about the bookings. We have no hard feelings. We want those points.”
Mokoena – who was curiously missing from the lineup which faced Benin on Tuesday – was booked on the stroke of halftime in Bafana’s Group C against Benin in November 2023, which ended 2-1 in South Africa’s favour, and again in November 2024 against Zimbabwe, when South Africa won 3-1.
That, according to FIFA rules, meant he should not have been eligible for last week’s match.
The likelihood of Bafana losing the points from last week is high, given previous cases.
In 2013, Botswana protested against Ethiopia for having used a player who had accumulated two bookings in their qualifier. FIFA stepped in and awarded a 3-0 win to Botswana.
On claims that Lesotho should have protested 24 hours after the match, Mohapi stated: “There’s no such. If the protest is valid, FIFA will look into it. We are awaiting their response.”
In 2017, Nigeria’s last World Cup duel with Algeria ended 1-1. Even without any protest by Algeria, FIFA intervened and awarded the match to Algeria on account of Nigeria fielding an ineligible player, Shehu Abdulahi who had had two yellow cards before the match.
According to South Africa’s Sowetan Live, a source close to SAFA blamed “administrative incompetence” for Mokoena taking to the field when he should not have. “The team manager should have notified the coach (Hugo Broos) that Mokoena has two yellows. He was not supposed to play.”
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Tunisia left out captain Ferjani Sassi and key defender Yassine Meriah as new coach Sabri Lamouchi made expected changes on Friday when he named his squad for next month’s World Cup.
Sassi, who has played 101 times for Tunisia, and Meriah, five caps away from a century of appearances for the North Africans, were both dropped from the squad.
Lamouchi, who was appointed coach in January after Sami Trabelsi was dismissed following Tunisia’s exit from the Cup of Nations in the last 16, overhauled the squad for his first two matches in March.
At the time, Lamouchi, who has had spells at Nottingham Forest and Cardiff City, did not reveal whether he was using the friendlies against Haiti and Canada to look at alternative options or whether he was seeking to build a new-look side.
Friday’s squad announcement suggests a mix, as there were surprise call-ups for 21-year-old Khalil Ayari and teenager Rayan Elloumi.
Ayari has been signed by Paris Saint-Germain but has yet to make the first team squad, while Elloumi has made only two starts in Major League Soccer with the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Canadian-born Elloumi, 18, played earlier this year for the World Cup co-hosts in a friendly against Guatemala.
The Tunisia squad also includes 32-year-old midfielder Rani Khedira, whose brother Sami was a World Cup winner with Germany in 2014. Khedira had previously rejected overtures from Tunisia to play for them, but in March switched his footballing nationality and debuted for the North Africans.
Tunisia compete at their seventh World Cup and are in Group F with Sweden, Japan and the Netherlands.
Squad:
Goalkeepers: Sabri Ben Hessen (Etoile Sahel), Abdelmouhib Chamakh (Club Africain), Aymen Dahman (CS Sfaxien)
Defenders: Ali Abdi (Nice), Adem Arous (Kasimpasa), Mohamed Amine Ben Hamida (Esperance), Dylan Bronn (Servette Geneva), Raed Chikhaoui (US Monastir), Moutaz Neffati (Norrkoping), Omar Rekik (NK Maribor), Montassar Talbi (Lorient), Yan Valery (Young Boys Berne)
Midfielders: Mortadha Ben Ouanes (Kasimpasa), Anis Ben Slimane (Norwich City), Ismael Gharbi (FC Augsburg), Rani Khedira (Union Berlin), Mohamed Hadj Mahmoud (Lugano), Hannibal Mejbri (Burnley), Ellyes Skhiri (Eintracht Frankfurt).
Reuters
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Fresh uncertainty surrounding Iran national football team’s participation at the 2026 FIFA World Cup has prompted emergency-level diplomacy, with senior FIFA officials set to hold crucial talks with the Iranian Football Federation in Istanbul on Saturday.
At the centre of the discussions will be FIFA Secretary-General Mattias Grafstrom, who is expected to meet officials of the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI) to offer what sources described as “reassurance” over Iran’s place at next year’s World Cup.
The meeting comes amid mounting political and security concerns following escalating tensions between Iran, the United States and Israel after military strikes earlier this year. The situation has raised fears over whether Iranian players, officials and delegation members would be granted unhindered access into the United States and Canada, two of the three host nations for the expanded 48-team tournament.
Iran have already qualified for the World Cup and are scheduled to play all three group matches in the United States, beginning with a clash against New Zealand national football team in Los Angeles on June 15.
However, doubts intensified after FFIRI President Mehdi Taj was reportedly denied entry into Canada for the recent FIFA Congress in Vancouver because of alleged links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Both the United States and Canada classify the IRGC as a terrorist organisation and have maintained strict entry restrictions for individuals associated with the elite military body.
The development triggered alarm within Iranian football and diplomatic circles, with Tehran insisting that FIFA must guarantee equal access and participation for all qualified nations.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, Kazem Gharibabadi, warned this week that any barriers placed before the Iranian delegation would undermine the integrity of the World Cup itself.
“The Iranian national football team has earned its right to participate on the field in accordance with FIFA regulations,” Gharibabadi wrote on social media.
He argued that preventing players, officials or technical staff from entering host countries would violate the spirit of the competition and damage FIFA’s credibility as a neutral governing body.
Behind the scenes, FIFA is understood to be working closely with authorities in the host nations to ensure all participating teams can compete “in a safe and secure environment.”
The governing body now finds itself balancing football neutrality with the realities of international geopolitics — a challenge that could define preparations for the biggest World Cup in history.
Iran had reportedly requested that their matches be relocated to Mexico to avoid possible entry complications in the United States, but Gianni Infantino is said to have rejected the proposal, insisting that the original tournament schedule remain intact.
In a potentially calming intervention, U.S. President Donald Trump recently indicated he had no objection to Iran participating in the tournament despite the strained political relationship between the two countries.
Still, uncertainty lingers over whether all Iranian officials — not just players — will receive visas and security clearance.
The Iranian team is scheduled to leave Tehran for a training camp in Turkey on Monday before travelling to their World Cup base at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Arizona in early June.
Saturday’s Istanbul meeting is therefore being viewed as far more than a routine administrative discussion. It represents a critical test of FIFA’s ability to protect the universality of football in an era where global politics increasingly threaten to spill onto the pitch.
For now, the message from FIFA appears to be one of reassurance. But until the first Iranian delegation members clear immigration checkpoints in North America, questions over Iran’s World Cup participation are unlikely to disappear completely.
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Haiti named their World Cup squad on Friday, with captain Johny Placide and all-time top scorer Duckens Nazon included as Les Grenadiers prepare for their first finals in 52 years.
French coach Sebastien Migne selected an experienced squad led by 38-year-old goalkeeper Placide, who plays for Bastia, while Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Jean-Ricner Bellegarde is among the team’s most recognisable European-based players.
Nazon, who has 44 goals in 76 appearances, was also selected after playing a key role in qualification, with the striker from Iranian club Esteghlal netting six times during the campaign.
The Caribbean side will play at the men’s World Cup for only the second time, and first since the 1974 tournament in West Germany, after topping their CONCACAF qualifying group.
They had to play all of their home matches at neutral venues because of the country’s security crisis.
Haiti will play warm-up matches against New Zealand and Peru before opening their Group C campaign versus Scotland on June 13, followed by games with five-time champions Brazil and Morocco.
Squad:
Goalkeepers: Johny Placide, Alexandre Pierre, Josue Duverger
Defenders: Carlens Arcus, Wilguens Paugain, Duke Lacroix, Martin Experience, JK Duverne, Ricardo Ade, Hannes Delcroix, Keeto Thermoncy
Midfielders: Leverton Pierre, Carl-Fred Sainte, Danley Jean-Jacques, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, Woodensky Pierre, Simon Dominique
Forwards: Louicius Deedson, Ruben Providence, Josue Casimir, Derrick Etienne, Wilson Isidor, Duckens Nazon, Frantzdy Pierrot, Yassin Fortune, Lenny Joseph
-Reuters
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