PRETORIA: The South African Football Association’s national executive committee has unanimously endorsed and approved the agreement between FIFAM, SAFA and the Sports Ministry to appoint a judicial inquiry into alleged match fixing on the eve of the 2010 World Cup

A SAFA statement said: “The NEC further recommended that the [Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula] set up the independent judicial commission of inquiry immediately but the commission should be limited only to the friendly matches prior to the 2010 World Cup and nothing else.”

The NEC also recommended that no past or present officials involved in football be part of the commission, while it was agreed that one of the three members of the inquiry would be Michael Garcia, FIFA independent ethics investigator/prosecutor. It recommended  a three month deadline.

Mbalula, SAFA president Kirsten Nematandani and FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke met in Zurich on Friday to discuss a FIFA report into match fixing, revolving around Bafana Bafana’s 2010 World Cup warm-up matches.

An agreement was made to set up an independent judicial commission of inquiry into the matter.

Five SAFA officials, including Nematandani and acting chief executive Dennis Mumble, were suspended in December after being  implicated in the issue but were then ‘freed’ in time for South Africa’s hosting of the African Nations Cup in January and February.

FIFA has been concerned all along that the government should not launch an inquiry of its own which would appear to threaten the ‘independence’ of SAFA.

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