Cape Town – The South African Football Association (Safa) has urged government to expedite the establishment of an independent judicial commission of inquiry to investigate match-fixing allegations involving matches the national team, Bafana Bafana, played before the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Briefing Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Sport and Recreation on Tuesday, a Safa delegation, led by its President Kirsten Nematandani, said the association had been “trying to get to the truth”.
“We urge the government to set up an independent judicial commission of inquiry into these rumours as soon as possible,” said Safa National Executive Committee member Poobalan Govindasamy.
Sport Minister Fikile Mbulala and Nematandani travelled to Zurich last month, where they met FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke. This meeting agreed that an independent inquiry should be set up to deal with match-fixing. SAFA’s national executive committee subsequently endorsed this agreement.
Referring to newspaper reports of the past few weeks that painted a grim picture of an organisation in financial trouble, Nematandani said that the reason for many of these stories was the fact that a new Safa leadership would be elected in September this year.
People vying for office were using newspapers to fight their battles, he said.
“There is no crisis in this organisation. We are here to give the facts as they are. In the end when we leave, we trust that you’ll agree the organisation is in good hands,” Nematandani said, adding that the association had assets of R42.2 million, a strong balance sheet and was not bankrupt.
Safa had also received an unqualified audit report.
Financial statements for the financial year ended June 30, 2012, which were presented to the committee, showed that Safa will suffer a projected loss of R56 million. However, the organization has been building up its reserves, which reached a total of R98.7 million in 2011. If the anticipated loss is deducted from this total of R98.7 million, Safa would be left with reserves of R42.2 million at the end of June.
Among the reasons advanced for the financial situation was a decline in sponsorship, and the of fielding national teams, including Banyana Banyana, which went to the London Olympic Games last year.
The projected loss of R6 million on the African Cup of Nations, hosted by Safa earlier this year, would change once the official position is made known later this week.
Safa said it could improve its position substantially if it is able to take Bafana Banafa matches from the SABC. However, it was the government’s position that these matches must be screened on SABC.
In order to steady the ship, Safa has also launched a recovery plan, which includes the selling of R10 million in shares in Netcare, obtaining a R7 million refund from SARS, and also selling 22 buses for R17 million. Another measure will be to reduce personnel.
SAFA vice-president Danny Jordaan briefed the committee about the legacy of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, stating that the international football governing body has transferred an amount of R450 million of the Legacy Trust.
“This money is in the bank. That’s the decision we took. This money is ring-fenced and is for development,” he said.
Committee chairman Richard Mdakane said that today’s meeting was a “normal meeting”, which sought to focus on good governance and accountability, sports development, transformation and the 2010 Legacy Project. – SAnews.gov.za
