This
rule was put in place some years back. If you remember in 2006 World Cup,
Angola went to the World Cup ahead of Nigeria because of that same rule and
Nigeria never complained.
Check
that group again. Angola had a goal difference of +6 yet Nigeria had a goal
difference of +14. The head to head results were as follows between the
concerned teams.
Angola
1-0 Nigeria and Nigeria 1-1 Angola. Angola had 4 pts while Nigeria had 1. It
didn't matter that Nigeria had a better goal difference by far. That the rule
and Pitso Mosimane and Kirsten Nematandani can’t complain.
Group 4
Team
Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
Angola
10 6 3 1 12 6 +6 21
Nigeria
10 6 3 1 21 7 +14 21
Zimbabwe
10 4 3 3 13 14 −1 15
Gabon
10 2 4 4 11 13 −2 10
Algeria
10 1 5 4 8 15 −7 8
Rwanda
10 1 2 7 6 16 −10 5
Good
luck SAFA for you appeal, but you won't win this case.
Also
note that the same rule is applied for the Euro 2012 as well. So we can't cry
now. The reason for this rule is to curb the issue of match fixing were a team
will need to win by a certain number of goals.
Therefore,
back to back eliminate bribery of certain teams. We had in the past some teams
winning by a very wide margin on their last games. So this is fair.
Hand
up to Egypt and Sierra Leone for fair play.
DISKIOFF
DISKIOFF
