With Bafana Bafana having fielded Teboho Mokoena, who was ineligible against Lesotho in a World Cup qualifier, KickOff looks back at five instances nations were punished by FIFA for a similar offence.
Nigeria, who flagged that Teboho Mokoena had picked up two bookings and was therefore ineligible to feature against Lesotho, has recent experience in World Cup qualifying drama.
In the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, they fielded an ineligible player, Abdullahi Shehu, who was cautioned for two matches prior to facing and playing against Algeria, in a game that ended 1-1.
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The Super Eagles lost the point, as the Desert Foxes were awarded a 3-0 result by FIFA.
However, the punishment from the governing body did not affect Nigeria, as they had already qualified.
Also in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, Ethiopia had their win against Botswana overturned and a 3-0 result given to the Zebras after they fielded an ineligible player. Minyahil Teshome Beyene was not supposed to play having collected two bookings.
The Walia Ibex, however, still finished top of the qualifying group that included Bafana Bafana but did not make it to the finals in Brazil after they were knocked out in the play-offs.
Cape Verde, in the same 2014 World Cup qualifiers, had the harshest sentence for fielding an ineligible player in a qualification play-off against Tunisia.
The island nation beat the North African giants 2-0 in the first leg but were thrown out of qualification after playing defender Fernando Varela, who was sent off in a previous qualifier six months prior.
Togo suffered a similar fate in 2013 after they fielded an ineligible player in a World Cup preliminary first-leg match they won 2-0 against Cameroon. Jacques Alexys Romao had an accumulation of yellow cards and The Sparrowhawks forfeited the game.
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Last year, Equatorial Guinea forfeited two World Cup qualifying matches for fielding star player Emilio Nsue, who was declared ineligible by FIFA - for the second time after the same player, who was top scorer at the 2023 AFCON cost EG points in 2014 World Cup qualifying.
However, the issue had to do with naturalization rules.