Soccer boss to hear fate
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’ FORMER Bafana Bafana assistant manager Phil Setshedi faces the possibility of a life behind bars tomorrow after being found guilty of trying to bribe a “referee”.
Setshedi was found guilty of match-fixing and corruption on December 7 and will be sentenced tomorrow in the Bellville Commercial Crimes Court in Cape Town. He is facing up to 18 years in jail.
This comes just days after European police and soccer governing body Fifa announced that hundreds of soccer matches had been fixed around the world in a global betting scam run from Singapore.
Court papers reveal how Setshedi sought to manipulate the play-offs of the third-tier Vodacom League in June 2011 by attempting to buy his team’s promotion to the National First Division.
His move, however, was scuppered by a whistle-blowing referee who informed the police. They then nabbed Setshedi in a sting operation in the Spur at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.
Setshedi’s trial featured 15 witnesses — including one South African Football Association official who said he feared for his life and a woman who thought phone calls from Setshedi to her referee boyfriend were from an illicit lover.
There was even an appear- ance by former Bafana Bafana coach Augusto Palacios.
The Peruvian, who had worked with Setshedi at Pirates, denied Setshedi’s claim that he had introduced him to referee Mike Ndlovu.
Setshedi was arrested at the restaurant minutes after paying an undercover police constable — who was pretending to be a referee — a R2 000 cash deposit, after agreeing on a fee of R6 000
‘ I was also informed previously that the people who are involved in soccer are very, very cruel ’
to fix two matches in favour of the Nelspruit-based Sivutsa Stars.
The sting had been organised in haste and less than a day after another referee, Sedrick Muwale, informed his boss at Safa that he had been approached to throw a game by a colleague, Clifford Malgas.
Both were already in Cape Town for the tournament.
Muwale testified that Malgas had told him that money would be paid to them through Ndlovu, who was in Johannesburg.
Safa official Leholohondlo Manzane said he then contacted Ndlovu, pretending to be in on the scam to find out more about the soccer agent who had offered the referees the bribe. The agent later turned out to be Setshedi.
Manzane said he then contacted another Safa official after fearing for his life.
He said in court: “I don’t want to get myself involved … I could get my life in danger. If that particular person got arrested, he can hire people to assassinate me or kill me.”
He added: “I was also informed previously that the people who are involved in soccer are very, very cruel and they can do cruel things.”
His Safa colleague, Shadrack Shishana, told the court he had been contacted first by Ndlovu and then the “agent ” directly.
He said he met Setshedi in his Waterfront hotel room. Setshedi said that he and Ndlovu had “come a long way”.
Setshedi had asked him how much it would cost for his team to win. They agreed on R6 000, although Setshedi said he would take a R2 000 commission for himself from that.
However, for the sting operation Shishana was replaced by Constable “Bomber” Mthembu, who was given a Safa tracksuit for the meeting at Spur.
Tomorrow the court will also rule on the immunity of the three referees who testified.
In the event, Sivutsa Stars won promotion that year.