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According to reports from Maseru, the decision follows an appeal from an independent body concerned over the state of football in the country, which wants the circumstances of a friendly match played by the Basotho national team in Malaysia in 2009 investigated.
It has already been found that Zimbabwe travelled on several occasions to Asia between 2007 and 2009.
The Warriors played matches and allegedly deliberately lost to pre-determined scorelines so that Asian betting syndicates could make money by correctly predicting the results.
Players and coaches received cash from the syndicate in return for losing the games and Zifa have since banned 15 individuals for life and fines and varying penalties to 70 other players, coaches and officials.
There are fears that Lesotho were also invited to the Far East in questionable circumstances.
Lesotho’s national team — Dikwena — lost 5-0 to Malaysia in a friendly match in Kuala Lumpur on September 11, 2009.
The Lesotho Football Supporters Association believes the team could have been part of a betting scam and that players and officials benefited corruptly.
The corruption watchdog has confirmed that it will be looking into the case.
Lesotho became the third Southern African country after Zimbabwe and South Africa t probe allegations of match fixing.
While the Asiagate probe in the country has targeted players, coaches, administrators and journalists with an Independent Ethics committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ahmed Ebrahim handing down punishments, the South African case has relied mainly on an investigation done by Fife’s security department.
The South African Football Association probe has thus so far claimed the help of that country’s soccer body Kirsten Nematandani who has been suspended along with some other top officials following a Fife report complied by former Fife head of security Chris Eaton and his investigating team.
Curiously, Eaton was in Zimbabwe and held his own probe but the Ebrahim committee claimed they did not get much help from the former Australian policeman who has been replaced at Fife by German Ralph Mutschke. But unlike in the Zifa scenario, Safa and the country’s ant-corruption unit, the Hawks, have not been quick to blame the Bafana Bafana players nor the country’s media for the alleged match-fixing that took place in the build to the 2010 World Cup even though some of the matches under probe were played in South Africa.
Yesterday the 2013 African Cup of Nations Local Organising committee told the Sowetan newspaper that the match-fixing mess that has rocked Safa would not impact negatively on the successful staging of the continental soccer showpiece.
The Nations Cup is expected to burst into life at FNB Soccer City on January 19.
With just under a month to go before the start of the Nations Cup the LOC has declared its readiness to deliver the “most successful event” in the tournament’s history.
Not even the recent suspension of Nematandani and other top football administrators over allegations of match-fixing is likely to take the gloss off the continental showcase, according to LOC chief communications officer Sipho Sithole.
“It (the suspension of Safa officials) should not have an impact on Afcon,” he told KickOff.com.
“Preparations for the tournament are going very well. Technically and otherwise, the LOC is ready to host the tournament.”
Close to 60 000 tickets have already been sold and the LOC expects this number to rise within the coming days as we inch towards the opening matches of the competition.
“This is the ultimate soccer tournament on African soil; there is no other competition above this, therefore we as Africans need to show support for our own football tournament and come out in numbers,” Sithole says.
Meanwhile, Hawks spokesman Paul Ramaloko tolds The Sowetan that the investigation into the match-fixing will “shake South African football to its core”.
He reveals that while the corruption complaint was only laid this week, they had been investigating the case since the start of the year and are currently going through a number of documents seized from Safa offices and homes.
Convicted Singaporean match-fixer Wilson Perumal and his Football 4U organisation is thought to be the ring-leader in the alleged fixing of games against Thailand, Bulgaria, Colombia and Guatemala leading up to the 2010 World Cup.
Online Reporter