Soccer match-fixing spreading?
2004-06-16 21:58
JOhannesburg - It appears the match-fixing scandal that has rocked South African soccer might have spread to the Vodacom League.
A Durban-based, second-division team manager said on Wednesday his dream of taking part in the first division had remained just that because of poor refereeing in the league.
Umlazi Man Tech United manager James Dlamini said: "Before the Christmas break, we played seven games, winning all of them, but immediately after January, things started falling apart."
Dlamini said that after four losses because of dubious refereeing decisions by the same referees, he took the matter up with the South African Football Association (Safa) and a meeting was organised in Pietermaritzburg.
To his surprise, he found out at the meeting that 15 of the 16 other teams had similar complaints.
Dlamini told Daily Sun he specifically complained about two referees who were officiating at games involving his team week in and week out.
Every time he raised the issue with local authorities he was told the appointed referee had not pitched up so an emergency one had to be called.
He claimed the two referees were giving dubious decisions against his team.
Dreams shattered
At the meeting, the other clubs added a third referee. The trio were removed and his team started winning games again.
Unfortunately, his team finished seventh in the log at the end of the season.
When the league went on a break for Christmas his team was lying third on the log, three points behind the leaders.
"I really thought we had a chance of making it to the first division, but the decisions against my team were ridiculous.
"What do you say when an opposition player holds the ball with both hands on the goal line like a goal keeper and the referee just ignores it.
"Sometimes your best player is given a red card for no apparent reason. That is what happened to my leading goalscorer. He was given matching orders for a hand ball in the middle of the park.
"To my understanding, that is a yellow card, but the referee thought otherwise," he said.
Earlier this week, police said top soccer officials would be arrested soon for match-fixing after there had been an investigation into bribery in the sport.
The investigation was launched after Safa president Molefi Oliphant assked police to probe allegations of bribery.
The top officials include referees, club officials and players in the first division and the Premier League.
- Daily Sun