Runners-up South Africa appeal to CAF

South Africa lodged a formal appeal Sunday against the head-to-head system used in the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations competition after finishing runners-up in a qualifying group.

Bafana Bafana (The Boys) believed they had won Group G because although they finished level on nine points with Sierra Leone and Niger, the 1996 African champions had a superior goal difference.

But the Confederation of African Football (CAF) have been using the head-to-head system for some years to separate national teams or club sides who finish with the same number of points in their competitions.

When this rule was applied to Group G, Niger got six points and South Africa and Sierra Leone five each so the landlocked Central African state advanced to the biennial African football showcase for the first time.

The Nigeriens won at home and lost away to South Africa and Sierra Leone while the two matches between Bafana Bafana and the Leone Stars ended goalless in a group defending champions Egypt had been expected to dominate.

"Niger have qualified for the finals under the head-to-head rule," a CAF spokesman said Saturday after South African footballers celebrated following the draw with Sierra Leone in northern town Nelspruit.

South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) television and radio commentators heightened the confusion by declaring that South Africa were back at the Cup of Nations after failing to qualify for the 2010 finals.

South African Football Association (Safa) president Kirsten Nematandani was interviewed after the game by SABC and congratulated the national team and coach Pitso Mosimane on their "success", unaware that Niger had topped the revised table despite a 3-0 drubbing in Cairo.

A Safa letter sent to CAF and posted on the association website says in part that "goal difference is the universally recognised means of separating teams who are equal on points ...

"However, we believe that the team finishing top of the log at the end of the competition is automatically determined at the end of 90 minutes' play and that second place is determined by the other rules.

"We will lay out our objection more fully shortly, but in the meantime wish to signal that we intend to challenge this interpretation and application of the rules."

Nematandani told stunned South African players after the game "not to despair, all is not lost. We believe we have a case and will carry this fight all the way. If CAF rules are ambiguous we need to challenge them and are well within our rights to do so."