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.

World Cup 2010: They think it's all over. Sadly, it is now

The World Cup is over. I'm home. Back in my charming little village in Buckinghamshire, about 25 miles west of London. Great to see the missus and the kids, great to recount the South African tales, great to use the brand-new barbecue, perhaps the only built-in "braai" in historic Chalfont St Giles!

But there's a hole in my life. The World Cup is over, and like so many others, I'm struggling to remember what I did before the whole thing got underway on June 11.

For me, it started years ago of course. I tapped out a book in six weeks last November, a novel which told how the Rainbow Nation's miracle was about to begin. Then I went out for the England cricket tour to South Africa, having set up my blog site with Andy Watts, the local internet guru.

Then South Africa tourism flew me out to their Indaba 2010 conference in early May. Since then, it hasn't stopped. An epic tournament, filled with drama on and off the field.

In brief, here's the statistics from my World Cup:

Newspapers: over 140 articles articles in an estimated 29 different newspapers, from USA Today and the Wall Street Journal in the US, to the Standard and Express in England and all over South Africa with translations appearing in India and Portugal among others. As I clip out the articles to create some kind of record of my trip, I find the Natal Mercury and the Shoot World Cup pull-out (which appeared in the Johannesburg Star, the Cape Argus, the Pretoria News, Natal Mercury and even Kimberley's Diamond Fields Advertiser, produced by the excellent Matshelane Mamabolo and dominated by the super Kevin McCallum) did me proudest.

Television: Apart from the usual Sky News stuff, there were two fascinating appearances on SABC2's Weekend Live plus interviews for Norwegian, Japanese, Indian and Italian television. Never saw those last four, but if anyone did, I hope I did okay!

Radio: nearly 50 crossings with David O'Sullivan on Johannesburg's 702 and CapeTalk's Aiden in the Mother City of South Africa, plus six or seven for BBC Radio 5. I did every Saturday lunch-time on WJR in the US which can be heard in 17 states, a couple with the BBC World Service and Ireland's NewsTalk, five or six for SABC's Radio 2,000 and one for a Portuguese outfit and various snippets for Guatemala, China and Denmark.

On-line: these are the verifiable numbers: YouTube 100,551, nealcollins.co.uk 30,129, Bleacherreport 128,730. How many of those are unique, different hits I'm not sure, but it puts up a figure of over 250,000 people.

I don't know how many readers/viewers/listeners actually paid heed to my views. Whether spoken, written or networked, I stuck to my guns.

When the foreign papers began their "South Africa sucks" campaign around April time, I firmly refuted their nonsense, sticking up for a nation which only shrugged off Apartheid 16 years ago.

There will be no bloodbaths, I said when the Daily Star's front page was emailed around the world. The stadiums, roads and hotels will be ready, I said when the Sun and Daily Mail said they were still building sites. The fans will be safe, I said when papers all around the world warned of crime and poor security.

Even on Sky News, when their Emma Hurd was down in Cape Town digging for anti-South African publicity at a squatter camp, I was on air saying such things wouldn't affect the World Cup.

They didn't. None of them. The stadiums were packed, the games started on time, the whole thing was magnificent.

I have made myself extremely unpopular in certain areas for being so outspokenly pro-South Africa. One site suggested I was paid by Durban's city council for being so keen on a 2020 Olympic bid. Rubbish. It's the best Olympic venue I've ever seen, and the official bid is underway now, six months after I first mentioned it here on December 29 lats year during the cricket tour.

An African Olympics is a certainty now. The IOL have been shamed in to it by FIFA's Sepp Blatter, not my favourite man but a visionary of sorts. He knew South Africa could do it, and stuck with them in a world full of doubters.

And ultimately, I should be happy. Crime in South Africa dipped to record lows during the World Cup. Security was perfect, just 170 arrests were made, a miracle of miracles. No bloodbaths, traffic snarl-ups, earthquakes, unfinished infrastructure, lethal snakes. How many times have I written that?

I was right all along. Of course, the foreign papers will make no apologies. None of them will call me and remind me: "Neal, you were right all along, we were wrong." South Africa, rightly, basks in the glory of a tournament which they pulled off with aplomb.

And I should be the happiest man in the world. Look at those stats above. I got the message out there, sold a few copies of my book.

But now it's over. Africa's first World Cup went off with barely a hitch. And here I sit, painting a fence, watering the hanging baskets, going to a school prize-giving, a county cricket final.

But what next? When you've been consumed by a crusade like South Africa 2010, how do you follow it?

Commuting into London has lost any allure it may have once held. The idea of doing shifts on the national newspapers and sniffing out a full-time role appalls me. There's a few Test matches coming up, the Ashes in Australia this winter... the start of the new Premier League season with England's rotten, over-paid let-downs.

Another book? A sequel to A GAME APART? Hardly. At 50p a book I'm never gone to get rich on current sales. Another career? Too late for all that at 49.

What I need is a new crusade. Any ideas? Feel free to leave them below. Help me lift the gloom. Please.

The French are revolting. Just ask President Sarkozy.

Distressed South Africans take heart. There has never been a better time to play France. Just ask president Nicolas Sarkozy. They’re revolting.

Yesterday’s open training session in picturesque Knysna featured a furious argument, a player boycott and the resignation of their federation’s managing director Jean-Louis Valentin. That’s a fairly ordinary day for the French at this World Cup.

Group A at this shock-laden tournament will go down to the wire on Tuesday - but when the hosts play the 1998 World Champions, three points for either side won’t be enough if Uruguay and Mexico fight out a draw in Phokeang.

But even if go down in history as the first home nation to fail to emerge from the group stages, BafanaBafana would consider a final triumph over the French in Bloemfontein a major step in the right direction after their 3-0 defeat at the hands of Uruguay.

And a win for the Rainbow Nation might just be on the cards after the latest episode in the French soap opera.

Already riven by all kinds of divisions under outgoing coach Raymond Domenech, tension reached boiling point on Friday when Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka was sent home by the French Football Federation.

Anelka was kicked out after French newspaper L’Equipe were told by a mole (“a traitor” if you ask Manchester United full-back Patrice Evra) what went on at half-time during last Thursday’s shock 2-0 defeat against Mexico. They said Anelka called Domenech “the son of a whore” in Polokwane. Anelka denied it and refused to apologise. Thanks very much Nicolas, and good night, said the FFF.

But today, after walking off the training field, the squad released a statement saying: "The players are unanimously against the French Football Federation's decision to expel Nicolas. But we will do everything individually and in a collective spirit against South Africa in Bloemfontein on Tuesday.”

And off they toddled. Revolting. Not that training was going particularly well anyway. Everything shuddered to a halt when captain Patrice Evra and fitness coach Robert Duverne had to be pulled apart byDomenech.

Duverne angrily threw his stopwatch away in an untimely outburst... and departed. The players decamped to the team bus before releasing their statement.

Then FFF boss Jean-Louis Valentin added to the chaos, announcing: "They don't want to train, it's a scandal. It's a scandal for French people, for the youngsters who came here to watch them train. I'm resigning, I'm leaving the Federation. I have nothing more to do here. I'm going back to Paris."

Asked if he was l’Equipe’s mole, a clearly distressed Valentin replied "no, no, no".

President Sarkozy’s advisor Henri Guaino said: “It's no longer football, it's no longer sport, it's no longer a team but I am not convinced that a political intervention would solve this kind of problem."

England’s John Terry, who is not revolting, added his opinion on team-mate Anelka just to help matters. Ignoring for a moment his side’s appalling showing at this World Cup so far, the former captain said: "Nico is a really good guy and he is a great player as well. Before he came to Chelsea, there was a lot of negative stuff written about him. But you won't find a better man in football.

"He is someone who is very quiet and been in the game a long time and knows his football. If he had something to say to me, I would stand up and listen."

Neal Collins is in South Africa to complain about England's performance and promote his first novel A GAME APART. See www.nealcollins.co.uk.

To see Neal at the National Arts Festival on July 4, go tohttp://www.computicket.com/web/event/neal_collins_a_game_apart/148367625.

Exclusive: England's World Cup base is ready and waiting... with hardly any deadly snakes lurking!

ENGLAND’S World Cup base is ready and waiting for Fabio Capello’s Lions – a week before the 23-man squad is due to land in South Africa.

Despite headlines just three months ago in the British tabloids suggesting the Royal Bafokeng Sports Campus was “a dump” and “a building site”, the Platinum-rich local tribe have produced, in less than two years, a high-altitude training camp fit for a king.

That’s King Leruo Tshekedi Molotlegi, the 36^th recorded monarch of the Bafokeng people. No African tribe offers a stronger lineage. The unmarried 41-year-old’s visionary “Grand Plan” does not stop with a five-star hotel, state-of-the-art-and-beyond gymnasium and the only FIFA Grade 1 rated training pitch in the country, it goes way beyond that, to a dream state which will come to fruition around 2035.

But for now, England and the Football Association should rejoice. They gambled on the tribe who fought to gain their own shares in the local platinum mines... and won. I last visited the site in January during the England cricket tour. When the British press turned up en-masse six weeks later, they slaughtered the place.

But I said exclusively in the Daily Express then that King Leruo would not let them down. I hate to say I told you so but, blimey, you’ve got to see this place to believe it.

Quite how England managed to get drawn in Group C, with their first game on June 12 played two miles down the road at the nearby Royal Bafokeng Stadium against the US (and they return there for their first knock-out game if they top the group on ), we shall never know.

But one thing is for certain. If England don’t win the World Cup after the clichéd 44 years of hurt, they won’t be able to blame the preparation.

Martin Bekker, the amiable Chief Executive of the Royal Marang hotel in the grounds of the campus, took me on a fascinating tour. As I arrived he sent me a jokey text saying: “I’ve cleared all the snakes personally”, a reference to yet anothing knocking story in The Sun this week, suggesting England were under threat from deadly serpents. As it happens, it’s winter. They’re hibernating. And they’re no threat anyway.

As we drove in, the staff were shouting “I feel it”, as World Cup fever spread among the works. Here are just some of the major points of interest:

1 The “typical five star” bedrooms are fitted with sensors which automatically turn on a night light when a player gets out of bed.

2 Televisions in the rooms are linked to a network allowing Fabio Capello to communicate with his players even while they are watching a re-run of Eastenders.

3 The gym offers facilities far beyond anything on offer elsewhere in Africa – including a rehabilitation pool with an underwater window for the physiotherapist to monitor his injured patient.

4 The two main training pitches boast exactly the same kikuyu-rye surface as the nearby Royal Bafokeng Stadium and earned a FIFA Grade A rating on May 5. It’s like playing on a carpet. I tried it. Much better than Wembley, and I’ve played on both.

5 At 1,300m the high-altitude, totally secure facility is already gaining the attention of foreign rugby, cricket, athletics and football teams eager to produce a squad of supermen at sea-level.

Look, I’m not pooh-poohing the other wonderful training bases I’ve had access to, but here England have – with shrewd judgement – ended up with the perfect World Cup hosts. Their base goes way beyond anything on offer elsewhere.

While the Germans languish at the luxury Velmore Estate 60 miles to the east in Erasmia, their training pitch looks like something from Hackney Marshes in mid-winter. They only started work on the field in January.

The Italians at Leriba Lodge in Centurion have to decamp to the nearby Southdown College to find a field to play on, while the Americans in nearby Irene Country Lodge have no obvious gym facilities and their training pitch is even further away.

The Dutch, Australians, New Zealanders and Brazilians all find themselves in non-purpose-built facilities with training pitches at local schools some miles away. Even the hosts, South Africa, have to share the Wits University grounds with the Dutch.

Only Argentina, based at Pretoria University’s High Performance Centre, can boast anything approaching the Royal Bafokeng Sports Campus. And Diego Maradona has had to have special toilets installed to ensure his comfort. The Spanish, at Potchefstroom University, are probably in third place with their training camp, used by South Africa’s cricketers.

Bekker, an old boy from the local St Stithians College public school in Johannesburg, has become an honorary member of the Bafokeng tribe. His brief history of the people is stunning. From their roots as a displaced Nguni clan 800 years ago, the current monarch’s ancestors have always been innovative standard bearers for the African folk.

The first indigenous people to own their own land, the cultivated German missionaries and dug diamonds from the Big Hole in Kimberley to create their early wealth. They befriended the legendary Oom Paul Kruger, first president of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek, who farmed the land England’s hotel now stands on.

And during the Apartheid years, they survived the noxious homeland system before badgering the big platinum mines for a share of the profits they deserved. Way back in 1989, when South Africa was in a state of emergency, plans for a massive football stadium were put in place... and sneered at by the white Government.

Bekker explains: “The Bafokeng are not your ordinary African tribe. We have a grand plan. Already the Leopards, Potchefstroom’s rugby team, have agreed to use our facility. And the Silver Stars football team have become the Platinum Stars and base themselves in Bafokeng.

“The kingdom covers 14,000 square kilometres, we have a Grand Plan covering education and development. The King gives every child in our 48 schools a free meal every day. And already we are seeing the benefits.

“We ask every one of our children to play one of five sports every day. Cricket, football, martial arts, athletics and netball. And our people dominated the recent national championships in cross-country and judo. Our local footballers are being recognised, we have the largest junior league in the country.

“This is all part of the Grand Plan. To be honest, we weren’t going to build the Sports Campus for another 30 years. But after the Confederations Cup was played here, we were approached by a European Football Association – I’ll leave you to guess which one – and we began work.

“It won’t end here. We have had specialist advice from around the world on where to go, what to do. We want to go all the way. And yes, we have European football teams eager to train here... and we have an Olympic plan too.”

Bekker has that glint in his eye. So too do the staff you come across, busily adding the final touches to a sportsman’s paradise.

There are no deadly snakes, no bloodbaths, no earthquakes, no muggings. The Royal Bafokeng Sports Campus could – should – provide the perfect launchpad for England’s World Cup bid.

Now it’s up to Fabio Capello and his Lions. They can ask no more from the Bafokeng people.

See the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAousno69rI and there's plenty more if you subscribe to my YouTube stream. Vuvuzelas plus the other camps, from the USA to New Zealand, Greece to Italy...

Bryan Robson, the first Englishman to hear the din, confesses: The Vuvuzela could win the World Cup for South Africa!

Bryan Robson became the first Eanglishman to face the dreaded Vuvuzela in Nelspruit on Sunday — and believes it may be a real problem for the other 31 nations at next month’s World Cup.

The former England skipper, now manager of Thailand, saw his side crushed 4-0 by South Africa in a pre-World Cup friendly dominated by the continual blast of the plastic football bugle, based on a traditional African antelope horn.

When the Vuvuzela drowned out commentary during last year’s Confederations Cup in South Africa, there were calls for a blanket ban — but FIFA took no action. Local fans are addicted to the instrument, and an orchestra of tuneless Vuvuzelas has been set up in Cape Town by a distinguished music professor.

“The other coaches are definitely going to have to inform their players beforehand that they will have to communicate effectively with each other on the field," Robson said of the erm...unique atmosphere.

"It's very difficult to get any message to the players from the bench - coaches are going to have to make that known to their players," said Robson.

The Vuvuzela debate will continue right through to the final.

"If the atmosphere is like that in the World Cup, it will raise the level of the players a little bit. If the supporters are behind them like that, it will be a big boost,” Robson added.

South Africa can be pleased with their latest World Cup warm-up, watched by a capacity 42,000 crowd at the Mbombela Stadium, which has concrete pylons shaped like giraffe's legs. At 90th, they are the lowest ranked hosts in World Cup history and there are fears they could be the first host nation not to qualify for the knock-out phase. They share Group A with Mexico and former winners Uruguay and France.

Thailand are listed at a lowly 105th in the latest FIFA rankings, but Bafana Bafana (The Boys, The Boys) triumphed without their three high profile stars. West Ham striker Benni McCarthy was left on the bench by Brazilian boss Carlos Parreira Alberto, who says he lacks fitness. Aaron Mokoena, who did a fair job at centre-back for Portsmouth in the FA Cup final defeat against Chelsea on Saturday, and Everton’s player of the year Steven Pienaar have yet to join up with the squad.

Parreira is preparing to lead a record fifth side in Africa’s first World Cup.

“I don’t care about the quality of the opponents, this was a big improvement. Results build confidence, the players looked more comfortable on the ball. We still need more penetration, but I feel it is coming,” said Parreira.

South Africa have friendlies against Bulgaria, Colombia and Group E qualifiers Denmark before they open their Group A campaign against Mexico with the big kick-off at Soccer City on June 11.

“We now have stronger opponents coming and they will give us a more physical challenge. We are in the final build-up phase but this is a good start,” said Parreira, who won the World Cup with Brazil in 1994.

South Africans, generally downbeat about their prospects, are beginning to change their view.

“ If 30,000 Vuvuzelas can make such a racket in Nelspruit, what will 90,000 be able to do at Soccer City? They could be a huge advantage. It could make a difference," Robson pointed out.

This journalist has attended three local games in South Africa in the past fortnight and come away with ears ringing as the din of the Vuvuzelas — which range from four feet to three inches in length — fills the stadium.

I've put together these videos:

The world’s smallest Vuvuzela: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLY7VWg1YhI

How to play the Vuvuzela (badly): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDYPwYGlnmw

South Africa’s secret weapon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i2w0QPVTBE