The shock 0-0 draw between South Africa and already-eliminated Zimbabwe, which followed Nigeria's unconvincing 2-1 win over Lesotho, has ignited a fierce debate in West African football circles.

With the 2026 World Cup Group C race now down to the final matchday, Nigerian media personality Femi Oguntayo has slammed the result, suggesting it was a calculated manoeuvre by Bafana Bafana to prepare for a dreaded scenario under a specific CAF/FIFA rule.

Oguntayo's theory revolves around the "Eritrea Rule," which governs the comparison of runners-up across all CAF groups.

"South Africa knows exactly what they are doing. It’s a trap. They don’t want to gather 6 points against last-placed Zimbabwe in case the Eritrea rule applies on the last day. If we beat Benin and they beat Rwanda. They qualify even with [the points deducted from them]," Oguntayo said.

Oguntayo's assertion highlights the complexity of the CAF qualification process. Due to Eritrea's withdrawal from Group E, that group only has five teams, while Group C has six.

The problem is to ensure fairness when comparing the four best runners-up for the play-off tournament; results against the last-placed team in the six-team groups (like Zimbabwe in Group C) are often discounted to maintain parity with the smaller groups.

The implication is that if South Africa had won both games against Zimbabwe (gaining 6 points) and then finished second, they risked having those 6 points (or just the 3 from this latest game) nullified when compared to other group runners-up.

South Africa is now forced into a must-win final match against Rwanda to secure their place, while hoping for a favourable outcome in the Nigeria vs. Benin fixture.