MATCH-FIXING: SEDIBE BLAMES SAFA
FORMER SA Football Association chief executive Leslie Sedibe has come out guns blazing, calling the Fifa matchfixing investigation unreliable and incomplete. Sedibe was speaking hours after the international governing body banned him from all football activities for five years following claims that Bafana Bafana’s pre-World Cup 2010 friendlies were fixed.
Fifa accused Sedibe of “infringing general rules of conduct, loyalty and duty of disclosure ‚ cooperation and reporting relating to matchfixing of international friendly matches played in South Africa in 2010”.
Sedibe revealed yesterday that he refused to cooperate with Fifa investigators after they, allegedly in collaboration with Safa, which he quit in 2011, had withheld information.
“I refused [to cooperate] because the documents and information I had asked for were not made available so that I could defend myself, ” he said at a press conference.
He said while he was hospitalised in April last year, Fifa invited him to appear before a hearing in Zurich.
“I could not travel because I had gone through a serious surgery, ” he protested.
Interestingly, Sedibe also questioned the move by SA to donate $10-million to the Carribean football federation, which is the subject of the latest Fifa corruption scan- dal. “Why donate this money when Safa had no money when I got there in 2010?” he asked.
Yesterday ’ s announcement by Fifa also included a twoyear ban for former Safa head of referees Steve Goddard, but he too was taken aback by the sanction.
“I did nothing wrong. This is beyond belief.”
Asked if he is going to appeal, Goddard said he couldn’t afford to pay the costs. “It will cost me to appeal and I’m not prepared to incur the costs. I did nothing wrong, full stop.”
He added that he was actually the whistle-blower.
The match-fixing allegations centred on Bafana matches in May 2010 against Thailand (4-0 win for Bafana), Bulgaria (1-1), Colombia (2-1 Bafana win) and Guatemala (5-0 win for Bafana).
According to a report two years ago that was filed in Business Day Sport Monthly, “[ Convicted match-fixer] Wilson Perumal and his crooked refs fled after Safa referee boss Steve Goddard called their bluff before the last warm-up game against Denmark in Atteridgeville one week before the kickoff of the World Cup”.
“The information was going to enable me to defend myself