South African midfielder, Themba Zwane’s red card against Mexico at the 2026 FIFA World Cup has been identified as one of several incidents requiring further scrutiny after an independent integrity body flagged it as potentially irregular.
According to The Athletic, Zwane’s dismissal was among seven incidents highlighted by the Group of Copenhagen, an advisory body that monitors betting patterns and identifies events it believes warrant additional investigation.
However, FIFA has rejected the suggestion that the incident was suspicious.
The Group of Copenhagen, which serves as the sporting integrity arm of the Council of Europe, stressed that the cases were only flagged as potentially irregular and that it has not presented any evidence of match manipulation.
FIFA’s Integrity Task Force, which collaborated with the Group of Copenhagen throughout the tournament, also maintained that its own investigations uncovered no irregularities.
Although the Group of Copenhagen is yet to publish its full findings, it has released a summary of its observations.
The report does not explain why Zwane’s dismissal was considered unusual. The South African international was sent off after allegedly striking an opponent in the face while attempting to fend him off.
South Africa later appealed the resulting three-match suspension, describing it as excessively harsh after it ruled the experienced midfielder out for the remainder of the World Cup.
The Group of Copenhagen also issued “yellow notices” over several other incidents it considered potentially irregular, including, United States forward Folarin Balogun having his red-card suspension overturned by a single FIFA official, making him eligible to feature against Belgium.
Prediction platform Polymarket attracting $4.8 million in wagers on Spain failing to defeat Cape Verde in a group-stage encounter that finished goalless.
A VAR review lasting three-and-a-half minutes that eventually ruled out Ferran Torres’ goal during Spain’s 4-0 victory over Saudi Arabia.
“The Group of Copenhagen’s notices can be explained by atypical behaviours such as changes in odds or hedging liquidity. There are many explanations that are not manipulations,” Christian Kalb, an expert on gambling integrity, told The Athletic.
“The major problem is when there may be a conflict of interest and potential inside information on those issues. When we speak of prediction markets, we can detect some unusual behaviours, but we must be very careful, as they can be used for hedging markets.”
