South Africa presses FIFA over World Cup elimination goal

ZURICH (AP) — South Africa’s soccer federation has formally complained to FIFA about a referee’s decision to award a penalty kick in a 1-0 loss that ended the team’s bid to qualify for the World Cup. FIFA says it “received a complaint from the South African FA in relation to this matter and will review it.” Sports bodies and tribunals typically do not intervene to act against field of play decisions by match officials. South Africa was eliminated Sunday by losing the final qualifying group game 1-0 at Ghana which topped the table. Ghana scored from a first-half penalty kick awarded despite little contact being obvious.