‘Five games fixed in SA before last World Cup’ — FIFA

AN INVESTIGATION by soccer governing body FIFA found evidence of match-fixing in at least five games in South Africa in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup, casting a shadow over this year’s tournament.

The report and related documents, which were obtained by The New York Times and have not been publicly released before, raise serious questions about the vulnerability of the World Cup, which kicks off on June 12 in Brazil, to match-fixing.

The report found that the match-rigging syndicate and its referees infiltrated the upper reaches of global soccer in order to fix exhibition matches and exploit them for betting purposes. It provides extensive details of the ways that fixers apparently manipulated “at least five matches and possibly more” in South Africa ahead of the last World Cup.

As many as 15 matches were targets, the report says, including a game between the US and Australia.

Although corruption has vexed soccer for years, the South Africa case gives an unusually detailed look at the ease with which gamblers can fix matches, as well as the governing body’s severe problems in policing itself and its member federations. The report includes various descriptions of how matches were apparently rigged.

In one case, a referee from Niger was said to have banked as much as $100 000 in cash before a friendly match between South Africa and Guatemala. In the game he awarded two penalties for handball even though the ball went nowhere near the players’ hands, the report stated.

FIFA is expected to collect about $4-billion in revenue for this World Cup cycle. —