Soccer scandal: CEO 'gutted'
2004-06-15 14:04
Pretoria - Professional Soccer League chief executive Trevor Phillips has expressed his shock at the recent allegations of soccer match-fixing involving referees.
"It shoots you right in the guts. You work for 18 months to restore credibility to the Premier Soccer League and now this. I am gutted," Phillips said.
These allegations will be investigated by the SA Police Service and not by the Scorpions, the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions said on Tuesday.
"We thought we might be issuing a statement but it has been decided that the investigation will be wholly conducted by the police," said spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi.
The task team headed by Gauteng's deputy provincial commissioner Afrika Khumalo and consisting of a number of detectives, began the investigation two moths ago at the request of SA Football Association president Molefi Oliphant.
It was reported over the weekend that an undisclosed number of referees were expected to be arrested as police concluded their initial investigation.
Police spokesperson director Sally de Beer confirmed on Sunday that an investigation had been launched into referees possibly accepting money from soccer clubs in exchange for influencing the outcome of games.
She said "a number of referees" had been identified and would be arrested and appear in court on bribery and corruption charges.
De Beer would not comment on the number of suspects.
On Tuesday De Beer said no one had been arrested yet, but the media would be informed as soon as arrests had taken place.
"Its not true that we have clammed up about the progress of the investigation but like all investigations we won't divulge when and where we will make the arrests or whom we are about to arrest," she said.
- SAPA