The South African Football Association has noted recent media reports about FIFA’s global investigation into alleged corrupt activities of some of the referees who officiated at friendly matches of the Senior Men’s National Team, Bafana Bafana in 2010.
The Association welcomes the investigation and is working very closely with FIFA to ensure that the scourge of corruption is uprooted from the game. With specific regard to the specific investigation, the Association’s Security Department met with FIFA’s Security Department where they exchanged notes about all the pertinent aspects of the said investigation.
FIFA also briefed the Association about the various risk factors that all Associations need to be on the lookout for and to mitigate. These include but are not limited to illegal online betting, match fixing, irregular player registrations and age cheating.
FIFA were pleased to note that the Association has discontinued the practice of engaging agents to source referees for matches of the national teams. The Association took a decision to revert to appointing referees itself through CAF or in the case of friendly matches, through our Sister football Associations as this will ensure full control and integrity of outcomes of all matches. They also confirmed that they are not investigating the Association or any of its members but were interested in getting information about the referees in question. FIFA also expressed appreciation for the continued cooperation received from the Association.
(TheSportsCampus)
