Former Safa CEO to take legal action against Fifa

Former South African Football Association CEO Leslie Sedibe has lashed out at his former employers and Fifa claiming the investigation that led to his five-year ban is devoid of truth.

Sedibe, who served as Safa CEO from January 2010 to February 2011, was banned yesterday by Fifa from all football-related activities.

He was also fined R311000.

He was banned for infringing Fifa’s general rules of conduct‚ loyalty and duty of disclosure‚ cooperation and reporting relating to match-fixing of international friendly matches played in South Africa in 2010.

Sedibe, who addressed the media in his personal capacity, alleged Fifa and Safa were not interested in the truth and claimed they wanted to find a “scapegoat” in the match-fixing scandal.

“Regrettably, I have come to a sad conclusion that all that will otherwise support my version of events has been destroyed and Safa’s conduct in this regard must be treated with great suspicion.

“I have not been given a fair opportunity to present my version.

“Fifa, ladies and gentlemen, was never interested in the truth … This was nothing short of a kangaroo court.

“These cowards, both from Safa and Fifa, are afraid to come to an independent tribunal. I want to make this point; we will meet in court. Fifa and Safa, I will meet you in court and justice will be restored,” Sedibe concluded.

He said he had written several letters to Safa through his attorneys and repeated requests for access to certain information had been ignored.

These included a laptop assigned to him during his tenure as CEO and to e-mails.

“This is quite interesting, because you will recall that according to Fifa’s preliminary report, one of their findings was about a laptop – a case of a missing laptop,” Sedibe said.

“It is a lie that I did not return the laptop. I did and I can show you the affidavit from the person who collected the laptop from my house. This person by the way is an employee of Safa,” he revealed.

Sedibe said he could not cooperate with Fifa’s investigation, because they asked him for documents that Safa refused to give him.

“In desperation, I filed an application in terms of the promotion of access to information act requesting the provisional report by Fifa after its investigation on match-fixing in 2010 … To date, despite the application that I filed with Safa that was addressed to Dr Danny Jordaan , I haven’t been given access,” he added.

Former Safa head of referees Steve Goddard said he was also in shock after Fifa banned him for two years for his alleged involvement in match-fixing.

Former Safa official Lindile “Ace” Kika was banned last year for six years for his role in the scandal and ex-head of referees Adeel Carelse was also banned.

Sedibe has been banned for five years and fined of 20000 Swiss francs . Goddard and Carelse both received two-year bans, which came into force immediately.

Goddard says he was stunned and maintained his innocence.

Asked if he was going to appeal, Goddard said he couldn’t afford to pay the costs.

“I’m not prepared to incur the costs. I did nothing wrong, full stop,” he added.

He was not prepared to comment any further, but worth noting are previous claims he was the whistle-blower.

The match-fixing allegations centred on Bafana matches in May 2010 against Thailand , Bulgaria , Colombia and Guatemala .