{The president of the South African FA at the time of the 2010 World Cup has been banned by Fifa for five years in connection with a match-fixing scandal involving the country’s national team.}<\/p>\n
A previous Fifa investigation found ‘compelling evidence’ that four South Africa friendlies prior to the World Cup on home soil had been fixed.<\/p>\n
Fifa found Kirsten Nematandani, who headed up the South African FA (Safa) from 2009-2013, guilty of failing to report suspected corruption and for being uncooperative during the investigation.<\/p>\n
He was one of three Africans to be sanctioned on Thursday, along with former Zimbabwe FA official Jonathan Musavengana and ex-Togo coach Bana Tchanile.<\/p>\n
Both men received life bans for bribery and corruption relating to the international friendlies in South Africa.<\/p>\n
Musavengana had previously been accused of being involved in a scheme where Zimbabwe national team players were paid to lose on a tour of Asia in 2009 – an accusation he denied.<\/p>\n
Tchanile, meanwhile, had already been banned from football for three years by his country’s federation after taking a team masquerading as the Togo national side to play a friendly with Bahrain in 2010.<\/p>\n
One of the South Africa friendlies came just 11 days before the start of the 2010 World Cup, which was taking place in Africa for the first time.<\/p>\n
On 31 May in Polokwane, Bafana Bafana thrashed Guatemala 5-0 in a game in which there were three controversial penalties by the Nigerien referee.<\/p>\n
Fifa believes that matches against Thailand, Bulgaria and Colombia, which also took place in May 2010, were fixed.<\/p>\n
Chris Eaton, Fifa’s then head of security, said convicted match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal had supplied the match officials for the four games.<\/p>\n
At the World Cup the following month, South Africa became the first host nation to fail to qualify from their group.<\/p>\n
In October 2015, Fifa suspended another former Safa official – Lindile Kika – from football for six years.<\/p>\n
The governing body said this was in relation to ‘several international friendly mathces played in South Africa in 2010’ – an allegation Kika denied.<\/p>\n
Along with Nematandani, Kika was one of five senior Safa officials put on ‘special leave’ in 2012 following Fifa’s investigation into match-fixing.<\/p>\n
All were reinstated in January 2013 but not exonerated from any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
A meeting of Safa’s executive committee at the time decided the emergency committee went beyond their mandate in suspending the officials.<\/p>\n
In August, Fifa’s investigatory chamber of its Ethics Committee recommended to the panel’s adjudicatory chamber that Nematandani be banned for six years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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