With the points deduction for Bafana Bafana now confirmed by FIFA, pending a potential appeal by SAFA, here is what Hugo Broos said on the matter during the previous international break.
At the time, Broos and his team were preparing for the qualifiers against Nigeria and Lesotho, but the cloud of a potential points deduction was lingering over the team.
Many, including Broos, argued at the time that without an official appeal by Lesotho over Teboho Mokoena playing against them in the first fixture despite being suspended, there would be no involvement from FIFA.
However, the football mother body still started their own investigation and now announced they deducted three points from Bafana.
Broos, at the time, also expressed his confidence in his team, saying they will do their talking on the pitch – even in case they would get deducted points.
“If we see what we did till now, why should we start doubting and be worried and be afraid? We won all the games you had to win, we did very good results in Nigeria. We won in Benin,” he said on SABC in August.
“So by being worried now and say, ‘Yeah, but yeah, it’s come back to three points…’ And if it’s like that, it’s like that, and then we have to fight for the qualifiers. Finished.
“This could be a normal ranking, we first, Nigeria three points behind, Benin maybe three points behind. Or we maybe three points behind Nigeria [or Benin], it could be normal in this group. What should we say then?
“We don’t think about it, they’re just adjust the ranking. If there will be a moment where we lose the three points, ok, then we lose the three points – we can’t do anything about that decision.
“We focus on the game, we focus on what we have to do on the pitch and not what we have to do outside the pitch.”