Bafana matches ‘fixed to boost rankings’

played in May 2010 just a month before the World Cup finals – were targeted by Asian betting syndicates.
The four matches being investigated by Fifa don’t include the friendly international between Zimbabwe and South Africa in Durban in 2010.
Earlier reports on Monday had indicated that the match was under investigation. Instead it was revealed yesterday that the match-fixing allegations will focus on Bafana’s warm-up matches against Thailand, Bulgaria, Colombia and Guatemala.
Bafana Bafana won three and drew one of the four matches and made giant strides on the Fifa rankings ahead of their historic hosting of the World Cup finals.
Lindile “Ace” Kika, who is the Ssafa head of national teams, told the Sowetan that the matches could have been targeted by the betting syndicates.
Kika has denied any personal involvement in wrong-doing that were allegedly fixed by referees appointed by a shadowy sports marketing group Football4U.
The blame for arranging the matches was shifted to Kika, by former Safa chief executive Leslie Sedibe, who told Sunday Times he had delegated this to Kika. Kika countered this on Sunday by saying he never had the authority to make such decisions.
“I am surprised Leslie says he delegated the organisation of these friendly games to me,” said Kika.
Football4U was controlled by Wilson Raj Perumal, a Singaporean, who has since been jailed in Finland for fixing games in that country.
Fifa described his conviction a breakthrough in the effort against match-fixing and illegal betting.
“These guys (Perumal and his organisation) approached us about a referees exchange programme,” said Kika.
“And to be honest, I thought it was a good opportunity for our local referees to interact with other internationals. I did not speak to them, but Leslie did. They never met with me.”
The matches were ahead of the World Cup opener against Mexico at Soccer City on June 11 and were refereed by African officials organised by Football4U.
Kika said Steve Goddard, a former Safa head of referees, and Adele Carelse, who has since taken over that role, did background checks on the three referees for the Bafana matches.
“(The referees’) names were on the Fifa list and that was confirmation for us that they could be trusted. However, their performances were below par and so we changed for the last game against Denmark,” said Kika.
The Thailand (4-0 win for Bafana) and Colombia (2-1 Bafana win) matches were refereed by a Kenyan, while the one against Bulgaria was officiated by a Togolese referee.
The fourth match, in which Bafana beat Guatemala 5-0, was handled by a referee from Niger who would have been on duty in the final friendly against Denmark, but was changed in the tunnel before the team ran out as Safa officials had become suspicious.
“During the Colombia game we became suspicious. We believed the penalty (which handed Bafana the 2-1 win) given was a bit soft and unfair to our opponents,” said Kika.
Kika revealed that Football4U, which is under investigation by Fifa and Interpol, tried after the World Cup to get involved in the organisation of the South Africa under-23 team Olympic qualifiers.
“We did not let that happen,” said Kika.
Perumal has also been linked to a fake Togo team that played in Bahrain and Zifa identified him in its 160-page report into alleged match-fixing on their national team tours to Asia from 2007-09. Sedibe has appointed a team of lawyers, led by Zola Majavu, in a bid to clear his name against allegations of match fixing. Sedibe was Safa CEO when Bafana Bafana rocketed up Fifa rankings in the 2010 Fifa World Cup build-up matches which were allegedly fixed. Sedibe’s strong bid to clear his name comes after reports insinuating that he knew about the alleged match fixing when he was still in charge of the federation.
A lawyer himself, Sedibe is furious that every time the Bafana friendly games in the build-up to the World Cup and the subsequent match fixing allegations are mentioned, his name crops up.
“I have appointed a team of senior legal people led by Zola Majavu to investigate the matter, they will represent me on this particular matter,” Sedibe said.
“We need a thorough investigation into this matter once and for all. We must get to the bottom of it. There is also a possibility that Safa itself could have been duped in the whole matter.”
Sedibe said he had a team of senior soccer administrators that he worked with at Safa.
“I delegated to people and had no doubt they would do a good job for Safa because they had massive experience in soccer administration. I cannot claim to be a soccer expert, there was no way I could doubt people who were delegated to deal with issues pertaining to Bafana Bafana’s games in the build-up to the World Cup.
“My hands are clean, I will tell the investigators what I know. I never did anything wrong when I was at Safa.”
Meanwhile, Safa say they will work closely with Fifa to ensure that they uproot corruption in the beautiful game.
“The association welcomes the investigation and is working very closely with Fifa to ensure that the scourge of corruption is uprooted from the game. With specific regard to the investigation, the association’s security department met with Fifa’s security department where they exchanged notes about all the pertinent aspects of the said investigation,” Safa said in a statement yesterday.
What role did the now suspicious Bafana matches play in the team’s rise in the Fifa rankings?
That question will remain unanswered until Safa, Fifa and the match-fixing investigators get to the bottom of the latest allegations. The victories and a single draw in those games saw Bafana climb seven places in the Fifa rankings, from 90th to 83rd between April and May 2010. That ensured that by the time the World Cup kicked off in South Africa, Bafana were not the lowest ranked of the competing teams.
By the end of the World Cup in July, Bafana had leapt to No 66.
Bafana made further strides in the year that followed, climbing to No 38 last May. The side has since dropped to their current 56th spot. – Sowetan/News24/IOL