Three SAFA officials banned by FIFA over alleged pre-World Cup match-fixing

An investigation into alleged match-fixing before the 2010 World Cup has resulted in three former South African Football Association (SAFA) officials being banned, FIFA has confirmed.

Former SAFA chief executive officer Leslie Sedibe has been given a five-year ban from all football activities as well as a fine of 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.

The sanctions followed an investigation, which saw former SAFA official Lindile ‘Ace’ Kika banned for six years in October last year.

A SAFA statement in 2012 said of the national team’s pre-World Cup friendlies against Guatemala and Colombia: “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 saw three questionable penalties awarded by Nigerien referee Ibrahim Chaibou, while Bafana Bafana’s 2-1 victory against Colombia four days earlier also saw all three goals come from the spot.