While Bafana sleep, SAFA burns: the eery backdrop to the 2013 African Cup of Nations

Togo or not Togo? This is the 2010 side put
together by Wilson Raj Perumal which contained
NO Togo internationals against Bahrain

STRANGE days indeed for South African football. Bafana Bafana will be sleeping peacefully in Cape Town tonight while SAFA burns.

When Gordon Igesund’s “dream team” take on a sub-standard Norway on Tuesday in the Mother City, the action at SAFA’s glitzy headquarters next to Soccer City is likely to be far from friendly.

Look, it’s great to see Cape Town actually getting a Bafana game. They didn’t bother to bid as a host city for the 2013 African Cup of Nations, so they get this friendly, with former Wimbledon boss Egil Olsen bringing six debutants on tour to play the hosts followed by AFCON champions Zambia in Ndola on January 12.

It won’t be much of a test. In Norway, “home-based” generally means “didn’t quite make it”. There are many other nations where the same is true.

Gordon Igesund, apparently oblivious to the pressure created by a unique failure to emerge from the group stages at the 2010 World Cup, assures us: “It won’t be a train-smash if we draw or lose, it will not be the end of the world. To me, the only result that really matters is the one on the 19th against Cape Verde at Soccer City.”

And the same can be said of the friendly against Algeria on January 12 in Johannesburg, the final run-out before the big kick-off.

Truth is, these pre-tournament friendlies are meaningless of course. Unless, like South Africa’s games before the World Cup two years ago, they turn out to be fixed by a dodgy agency called Football 4U.

Wilson Raj Perumal’s company, the people behind Zimbabwe’s Asiagate scandal, were called in to organise those friendlies when SAFA suddenly realised they didn’t have anything planned at the back end of 2009. Perumal even offered to pay SAFA R1m for each friendly successfully hosted. Amazing.

Initially, I thought it was an innocent mistake from a desperate SAFA. Now I know differently. The guilty party knew EXACTLY how Zimbabwe got themselves in a fix in 2009 with the shock waves still reverberating around that scandal.

Perumal is a 47-year-old Singaporean with a long history of match-fixing. It was he who put out 11 amateurs masquerading as Togo’s national side against Bahrain in September 2010. And of course, he was behind Zimbabwe throwing matches against Thailand, Malaysia and Syria in 2009.  He says he does it to help African footballers “living in squalor”, paying them paltry amounts to fix matches while he makes huge profits on the Far East betting markets.

Perumal was first jailed for match-fixing in 1995 when he paid a football captain in Singapore $3,000 to throw a game. In 2000 he was convicted of assault for attacking Ivica Raguz, a player in Singapore’s Woodlands Wellington team. Apparently he was trying to weaken the team.

Perumal is still wanted in Singapore after being sentenced to five years for running over a police officer outside Changi airport in May 2009. He skipped bail and fled to England, where he lived under an assumed named before he left for Finland, where he was arrested in 2011 for attempting to fix local league matches. In the midst of all this, he managed to find time to sort SAFA out too.

Telephone records seized from Perumal’s hotel room in Finland show a global network of contacts including FIVE national football federations stored on his mobile, along with numbers for several current and former international players and referees.

Perumal served one year of a two year sentence in Finland and was released last year, his current whereabouts is thought to be Hungary where he is on remand… for match-fixing.

It would be best if South Africa simply came out and said all they know about their dealings with Perumal rather than attempting to brush everything under the carpet. Especially now, before a major tournament.

The identity of the man who first called Perumal – and allegedly took R1m from him for each of the friendlies – needs to be made public to clear up this mess.

Instead, President Kirsten Nematandani, suspended when FIFA’s report on those games dropped a fortnight ago, reinstated himself in the car-park outside the Association’s offices on Friday. Yes, in the car park, because his office was taken.

Curiously, the man who filled Kirsten’s dancing shoes, Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana, is none too happy about the man in suspenders returning with fellow exiles Dennis Mumble, Lindile “Ace” Kika and Adeel Carelse even before the enquiry promised by Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula.

In fact, that inquiry may now never be held. Mbalula says “hosting AFCON is of chief importance” maintaining that the match-fixing report will now be referred to “appropriate committees”.

That’s dangerous stuff. If FIFA sense a government minister interfering with football affairs, they have been known to take punitive action.

The Sunday Sun quotes a source saying: “Kirsten feels his name has been dragged through the mud, now we have to do damage control” while suggesting (strongly) an on-going war between Nematandani and Nonkonyana beneath a split picture of the pair and the headline GLOVES OFF AT SAFA.

Kirsten himself says: “AFCON is around the corner. This is where we need to channel our energy now. This has been a challenging time, a test of strength.”

My own source suggests “everyone knew SAFA’s consultant was fixing games before the World Cup.”

And the obvious conclusion is that Nematandani was reinstated on orders “from the very top” to keep him from revealing all about those unbeatable friendlies against Thailand, Bulgaria, Colombia and Guatemala. You’ll see what I thought of the 5-0 win against Guatemala at Polokewane on the night here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjzwzNhaeTM&list=UUkGxwYf7NwY7vYMdeTBg41w&index=26.

So SAFA, while keeping team hotel robberies secret and upsetting the SABC over their deal to cover tonight’s game on SuperSport, is humming with intrigue and back-stabbing over the real personality behind the match-fixing scandal.

  

They say the truth will out. Perhaps. If FIFA are serious about stopping match-fixing after Australian Chris Eaton’s resignation as their match-fixing hunter. But this one goes right to the top, close to the president himself. So it’s unlikely.

We could also mention the curious case of Thuso Phala and Siyanda Xulu, who had “everything taken” by robbers while in camp with Bafana at the Elangeni Hotel in Durban last month. That nasty little tale has been kept top secret by SAFA too.

It’s  also worth mentioning a report in Sunday’s City Press, claiming SAFA are bleeding cash, with R10m lost in the first four months of the current financial year and R56m gone last year. SAFA are mumbling about it being "just a cash flow problem", but again, we’ll see.

Despite this bleak backdrop, Gordon’s Boys must play on. Beating Norway’s local lads and Algeria’s AFCON failures shouldn’t be too tough. Then they take on cheeky Cape Verde, near-neighbours Angola and mighty Morocco in a bid to reach the knock-out stages on home soil as they did so emphatically – but against all expectations – in 1996.

I believe that, despite all the SAFA suffering, Bafana WILL get to the quarter-finals… and they do so with one glimmer of good news. Sipho Sithole, the musical AFCON publicist, tells me 350 000 tickets have been sold so far, despite confirming that the government’s funding for marketing only arrived on December 21.

Sithole laughs: “Four days before Christmas. And they expect us to have all the billboards and flags in place. It’s going to be difficult. But ticket sales are going as well as we could have hoped.”

If you are still hanging around the local Super Spar and struggling to get your tickets, twitter Sipho on @nativerhythms or call the hotline on 087 980 3000. It’s not too late.

QUESTIONS FOR SAFA:

Do you accept you broke FIFA Statute 13.1 (g), which prohibits the control of its affairs by an outside party?

Why was the appointment of Football 4U International never brought to the attention of the SAFA NEC?

Who decided to suspend Kirsten Nematandani when the report landed? And given that he is your president, who has the power to make such a quick decision when he was NOT one of the six named by FIFA for "further investigation"?

A shorter version of this story will appeal as my Neal and Pray column in www.thenewage.co.za on Tuesday.

Match Fixing: South Africa Threatened by Corruption and a Dodgy Referee

Ibrahim Chaibou. Not a name you might instantly recognise, but one worth remembering as the latest round of FIFA match-fixing allegations rocks football.

With Greece, Finland, South Korea and even Sumo wrestling in Japan under scrutiny, FIFA have now turned their gaze to a couple of bizarre games in the build-up to last year’s World Cup in South Africa.

First, as they opened the World Cup final venue at Soccer City, Bafana Bafana (The Boys, The Boys) beat Colombia 2-1 on May 27, 2010. Amid the blaring vuvuzelas, Kenyan referee Langat Kipngetich saw fit to award two penalties – one of them distinctly dodgy - to South Africa that day, leaving the Latin Americans a little irked. I seem to recall Colombia coach Hernan Dario Gomez getting quite angry about it.

Four days later, I drove up the N1 motorway through a forest of toll booths to the brand new Peter Mokabe stadium in Polokwane (once known as Pietersburg) to see Bafana Bafana take on Guatemala. Though BafBaf were ranked 92 at the time (a record low for a World Cup host nation) they contrived to win 5-0, their best-ever international scoreline. Great boost for an anxious nation that as I said when I filed this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjzwzNhaeTM.

Strange day too. Before the game, with an old goalkeeper friend of mine Deshi Bakhtawer, who now works for the South African Broadcasting Corporation, we stopped off at the Holiday Inns in downtown Polokwane.

A strange but clearly powerful man, short in stature but big on lip, was ordering people about. I chatted to him. He told me he was the “agent” for the game. Bodyguards surrounded him. He told me how he organised such friendlies, sorted things out (for a reasonable fee, I imagine)... before driving off to the ground looking suitably self-important.

The Holiday Inns was chaotic, filled with journalists, fans, officials, players, ex-players and, unless I’m very much mistaken, the referee that night, a man called Ibrahim Chaibou, flown in from Niger.

A couple of hours later, Mr Chaibou saw fit to award two penalties to South Africa, both for handball. The first, after just 12 minutes, was a travesty. Katlego “Killer” Mphela stuck both spot kicks away. Job done.

At the time, I saw both the Colombian and Guatemalan wins (and the subsequent 2-0 win over highly-ranked Demark in Atteridgeville) as perfect preparation for the World Cup for the hosts, who started the tournament on a run of 12 unbeaten internationals. Sure, the refereeing was a little generous, but hey, Guatemala had just suffered a series of earthquakes and their players didn’t look too bothered about the result or the refereeing.

Now, just over a year on, you start to wonder. Just like seeing Bernard Tapie’s Marseille in the early 1990s or Hansie Cronje’s cricketing Proteas at the turn of the century, perhaps I was witnessing something more than met the eye.

Look closer at Mr Chaibou’s recent performances and you’ll see he was the man in charge when Bahrain beat Togo 3-0 last year. That was the day Togo put out a side of nonentities, pretending they were international footballers. Mr Chaibou saw fit to disallow five goals that day, for no other obvious reason other than to keep the scoreline respectable. Critisisms of his performance were swept under the table as the headlines focussed on the bogus Togo line-up and the actions of an agent called Wilson Raj Perumal.

But a month ago in Abuja, our whistle-happy friend Mr Chaibou was at it again. Nigeria were (surprisingly) 4-0 up against a below-par Argentina side when, according to internet bookmakers, there was a rush on betting that there would be a fifth goal in the match.

Matthew Benham, of online betting outfit SmartOdds, informs us: "With 86 minutes played the odds for [a fifth goal] were absolutely insane. But the market was effectively saying there would be no more goals."

Lo and behold, Mr Chaibou allowed nine minutes of injury time (even though the fourth official had signalled only four), then awarded Argentina a bizarre penalty. Nigerian defender Efe Ambrose clearly controlled the ball with his thigh but Mr Chaibou awarded a penalty for handball. Mauro Bosselli took the spot kick, fifth goal went in and the match ended Nigeria 4, Argentina 1. The internet gamblers were the only winners.

At the time FIFA President Sepp Blatter said there would be fair hearing on the issue adding: ''We have voted huge funds on investigations of match fixing and there will be zero tolerance on corruption.”

And that’s the last we’ve heard. Mr Chaibou remains unsuspended and free to referee at the top level. Now look, I’m not in a position to say Mr Chaibou is corrupt. I’m just pointing out that he’s been under scrutiny ever since FIFA announced on June 2 they were “studying betting patterns during the match as part of a wider ongoing FIFA investigation."

And hey, Mr Chaibou retired this year as he hits the referee’s retirement age of 45. Soon he’ll be history. But what you have to ask is: How did he get to referee that game against Guatemala? Did he really fail to notice the Togo side in Bahrain weren’t real international footballers? Why did he allow the game in Abuja to go on and on?

Match-fixing is, as we all know, as lethal to footballing credibility as performance-enhancing drugs are to athletics and cycling.

And then consider the case of Phil Setshedi, the former Bafana Bafana assistant coach, and his recent run-in with South Africa’s special police unit, The Hawks, earlier this month. Apparently Mr Setshedi was keen on seeing a team called Mpumalanga Sevutsa Stars beat Garankuwa United in their feeder division play-offs in Cape Town last month. So keen he offered a policeman, posing as the match referee, R2,000 to ensure the right result.

South African police spokesman McIntosh Polela is quoted as saying: "A member of the Hawks who posed as a match referee met up with the identified suspect at the Southern Sun Hotel in Cape Town. During this meeting the suspect offered to pay the agent in order to secure a win for Mpumalanga Sevutsa.

"Rakhange Humphrey Setshedi was granted bail of R10,000 and ordered to appear again on 9 September... he has surrendered his passport and will report to the Sandton police station twice a week.”

With Greece charging 84 football officials over corruption surrounding 54 games over the last two years, South Korea arresting five players and Mexico also investigating similar charges, South Africa is in danger of being dragged into the grey area of match-fixing.

So far SAFA have made all the right noises with spokesman Morio Sanyane insisting yesterday: "We take this opportunity to assure FIFA of our unqualified cooperation and support should they institute any form of investigation.

"Should any of our administrative members be found to have played any role in the matter, the association will, without hesitation, take appropriate action against the culprits in order to protect its integrity.

“As things stand, we want to believe that the matches under question were played in the spirit of fair play.”

As I said on South Africa's eNews television channel yesterday, so do we, Mr Sanyane, so do we.

It's official, South Africa CAN beat Mexico when the big kick-off comes on June 11

THE key quotes from Polokwane on Monday night came from Guatemala coach Francisco Melgar. Nice bloke. His nation is struggling with volcanic eruptions and general devastation, he’d just been on the end of a 5-0 defeat – South Africa’s biggest since the end of international isolation in 1992 – and he insisted: “Yes, they can beat Mexico.”

That’s all the Rainbow Nation wanted to hear after their eleventh straight unbeaten match since the return of Carlos Alberto Parreira to the hottest seat in football in November. But there was also this, in response my query in the press conference: “We have had a good time here. The facilities are perfect. I have no doubt South Africa can host the greatest World Cup.”

Oh, and he admitted the Vuvuzelas will have an impact on the 31 visiting nations... I grow tired of warning the European nations what a din the plastic trumpets can make. I tried to speak to talkSport last night amid the incredible noise at the sparkling new Peter Mokaba Stadium... but it was a struggle. I was back on this morning explain the impact this atmosphere can have, but I don’t think they’ll get it until the witness it for themselves.

But enough of the beautiful noise. What about the result? On a night when Aaron Mokoena won his 100^th cap and nearly 40,000 arrived in the far north of the country to see their side’s penultimate friendly, they played good possession football with Steven Pienaar dictating the play from a central role. He plays wide right for Everton – where he was player of the season in the English Premier League last winter – but he is starting to look comfortable getting forward and spraying the passes for Bafana Bafana.

Katlego Mphela converted a penalty in each half and Reneilwe Letsholonyane and second-half substitutes Surprise Moriri and Bernard Parker were the other scorers and though Guatemala are ranked a lowly 114 the hosts can rightly begin to hope before June 11 when they kick-off their Group A campaign against Mexico, Uruguay and France, who are all in the top 20.

Parreira, who trims his squad to 23 this morning, said:"Technically we weren’t brilliant but the attitude was very good considering Guatemala often had nine men behind the ball. In those circumstances, it’s good to score five.

"I’m afraid I ‘m not in a very good mood. Now I must tell five players they have to go home. For three months I have seen wonderful commitment this team and I thank them."

The big successes last night? Apart from Pienaar, left-back Lucas Thwala produced real creativity down the left – he made the second for Letsholonyane fired home. And Orland Pirates goalkeeper Moeneeb Josephs (above), in for the injured Kaizer Chiefs stopped Itumeleng Khune , looked confident and strong, even saving a penalty from Guatemala captain Guillermo Ramirez.

My exclusive video from Polokwane:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjzwzNhaeTM