KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTING —  FIFA’s ethics committee has moved to finally wrap up the South African pre-World Cup matchfix scandal by imposing bans on three more former SAFA officials.

A six-year suspension from football imposed last October on Lindile ‘Ace’ Kika has been followed by bans of five years on Leslie Sedibe (and a fine) and two years each for Steve Goddard and Adeel Carelse.

The punishments arose out of a matchfix scandal surrounding test friendlies played in South Africa on the eve of the country’s hosting of the 2010 World Cup finals. Mastermind was the notorious Wilson Raj Perumal on behalf of Dan Tan and an Asian betting syndicate.

The matches concerned were World Cup warm-up games for the host nation’s national teams. They involved Thailand, Bulgaria, Colombia and Guatemala and were refereed by African officials contracted by an agency called Football 4U International. This was a front for Perumal.

South Africa’s 4-0 win over Thailand and 2-1 win over Colombia, in which all three goals came from penalties, were refereed by a Kenyan. A match against Bulgaria was officiated by a Togolese referee.

Three penalties

A 5-0 win over Guatemala saw Niger referee Ibrahim Chaibou award three penalties for handball. Perumal later told media that Chaibou was his “favourite” official.

Chaibou was also nominated for South Africa’s final World Cup warm-up, against Denmark, but was replaced in the tunnel just before the team ran out because some other SAFA officials had become suspicious.

Administrative concern about the games did not emerge until almost two years later, in February 2012. Then Sedibe, who had been SAFA chief executive, said he had delegated responsibility to Kika, then SAFA’s head of national teams, for liaison with Football 4U International.

Kika denied this. At the time he said: “These guys (Perumal and Football 4U) approached us about a referees exchange programme. I thought it was a good opportunity for our local referees to interact with other internationals. I did not speak to them, but Leslie did. They never met with me.”

Goddard, a former SAFA head of referees, and successor Adele Carelse had undertaken background checks on the referees, according to Kika.

Kika added: “The referees’ names were on the FIFA list and that was confirmation for us that they could be trusted. However, their performances were below par and so we changed for the last game against Denmark.”

Eaton investigation

In March 2012 an inquiry was launched by the then FIFA security head Chris Eaton.

In December his 500-page report described “compelling evidence” that the matches had been fixed and SAFA imposed provisional suspensions on Kika, SAFA president Kirsten Nematandani, ceo Dennis Mumble, Carelse and new head of national teams Barney Kujane.

The report said Perumal had offered to arrange, and pay for, the friendlies as well as provide referees. The referees fixed the matches, according to the FIFA report, making dubious decisions on offsides and penalties. For SAFA to have delegated such match arrangements to an outside agency was a breach of regulations in itself.

South Africa’s government promised its own judicial commission of inquiry but FIFA objected that this implied government interference.

Proceedings launched

After a lengthy stand-off FIFA’s then ethics prosecutor Michael Garcia activated his own investigation in November 2013. Precisely a year later proceedings were opened which led to the original ban on Kika.

As for Chaibou, he continued refereeing into 2011 after retired only after his controversial handling of a friendly between Nigeria and Argentina in Abuja.

Nigeria were leading 4-0 at the end of the regulation 90 minutes. Chaibou added a standard four minutes of stoppage time but then kept the game going. In the 98th minute he awarded a penalty to Argentina for a non-existent handball. The final score was thus 4-1.

Later analysis of betting patterns by FIFA revealed a surge in bets for a fifth goal. Chaibou has never been charged with any offence and is now, to all intents and purposes, beyond reach.

Perumal connections

The fall-out from Perumal’s activities continues.

He was linked – among many other scams on behalf of Asian betting syndicates – with a major fixing scandal in Finland club football as well as a fake Togo team which played in Bahrain (when the BFA president was Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, the current Asian confederation head and a FIFA vice-president).

The Zimbabwe Football Association also identified Perumal in its own 160-page report into alleged match-fixing on their national team tours to Asia from 2007-09.

Perumal’s name and connections have been linked, in the last fortnight with the latest Zimbabwe matchfix scandal whose tentacles appear to stretch into the South African PSL.

In a response to the latest bans Poobalan Govindasamy, chair of the SAFA ethics committee, said: “We are glad this matter has ultimately reached this stage since SAFA reported the matter to FIFA almost four years ago. It had dragged on too long for our liking and was starting to have an impact on us as an Association and our valued stakeholders.

“At SAFA we have a zero-tolerance policy for any corrupt activity which impacts negatively on this beautiful game and for that reason we welcome strong measures against any individual who is found guilty of such offenses.

“This should serve as a warning to anyone harbouring intentions of engaging in nefarious activities within the sport that the long arm of the law will catch up with them. Be warned.”

Ethics committee statement:

The adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee chaired by Hans‑Joachim Eckert has banned several officials from all football-related activities (administrative, sports or any other) at both national and international level.

Three cases were decided concerning international friendly matches played in South Africa in 2010.

The investigation, initiated on November 2014, against (former) football officials of the South African Football Association (SAFA) were conducted by Dr Cornel Borbély, chairman of the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee, in collaboration with the FIFA Security Division.

They relate to the proceedings against Lindile Kika which were decided in October 2015. Mr Kika was banned from all football-related activities for six years by the adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee.

In this regard, the adjudicatory chamber decided that the former official Leslie Sedibe had infringed art. 13 (General rules of conduct), art. 15 (Loyalty), and art. 18 (Duty of disclosure, cooperation and reporting) of the FIFA Code of Ethics (FCE) and imposed a ban on him from taking part in any football-related activities for five years and a fine of CHF 20,000.

Furthermore, the former officials Steve Goddard and Adeel Carelse were both also found guilty of violating articles 13, 15, and 18 of the FCE and each received a ban of two years.

All bans come into force immediately.

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