Three former South African Football Association (SAFA) officials have been banned from football after an investigation into match-fixing, FIFA has confirmed.
Former SAFA chief executive officer Leslie Sedibe has been given a five-year ban from all football activities and also been fined 20,000 Swiss francs.
Steve Goddard and Adeel Carelse, who each served as SAFA’s head of referees, have been given suspensions of two years. All three were found guilty of breaches of conduct and disclosure. But FIFA did not give details of the case.
A 2012 FIFA investigation looked into South Africa’s friendly matches before the 2012 World Cup against Thailand, Bulgaria, Colombia and Guatemala.
A SAFA statement in 2012 said of the national team’s pre-World Cup friendlies: “The FIFA report addresses the question as to whether one or more of the pre-World Cup friendly matches was fixed and finds compelling evidence that this was indeed the case.”
South Africa’s 5-0 win over Guatemala in May 2010 (highlights below) saw three dubious penalties awarded by Nigerien referee Ibrahim Chaibou, while the 2-1 victory against Colombia four days earlier also saw all three goals come from the spot.
Another former SAFA referees chief, Lindile Kika, was banned for six year in October 2015 for his role in the match-fixing inquiry.
