Sports News of Thursday, 21 October 2021
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
2021-10-21
CAF President, Dr. Patrice Motsepe
• Dr. Patrice Motsepe says South Africans gutted about Ghana’s knockout
• VAR would have saved Ghana, CAF president
• Luiz Suarez prevented Ghana’s goal at the 2010 World Cup with his hand
The president of the Confederation of African Football, Dr. Patrice Motsepe, has revealed that some South Africans wanted the state to detain Luiz Suarez after the Uruguayan deliberately handled Ghana’s goal-bound header during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Ghana was on the verge of becoming the first African country to make it to the semi-final of the 2010 World Cup when Uruguay player, Luiz Suarez used his hand to stop John Mensah’s header from crossing the goal line.
A penalty was awarded to Ghana after the incident but Asamoah Gyan missed the penalty with only a few minutes to end the game in regulation time.
The game proceeded to penalties after 120 minutes of action ended 1-1 and the Black Stars eventually lost to the Uruguayan side on penalty shootout.
Reacting to the incident which occurred 11 years ago in South Africa during his visit to Ghana, Dr. Patrice Motsepe noted that some wanted Suarez arrested.
Dr. Motsepe said, “They were saying that when the World Cup ended in 2010 in South Africa, they said they were going to ask the defense minister not to allow Suarez to leave the country because that was a clear goal.”
According to him, if Video Assistant Referees [VAR] had existed in that era Ghana would have been the light of the African continent because the Black Stars had a unique talented team.
He said, “If there was VAR they would have said that was not a penalty but a goal. We believed that God had planned something for both Ghana and Africa.”
“Ghana had the most unique talented team at that time and we were very ambitious that Ghana was going to go all the way,” Dr. Motsepe emphasized.
