Fifa to look into WC warm-up fix claims
Fifa will move quickly to investigate allegations that friendlies in South Africa were fixed in the buildup to the 2010 World Cup, the country's football association said Tuesday.
Fifa will move quickly to investigate allegations that friendlies in South Africa were fixed in the buildup to the 2010 World Cup, the country's football association said Tuesday.
After media reports cast doubt over the validity of some of the host nation's results ahead of the Cup, a Fifa team will travel to the country to look at the claims, the South African Football Association (Safa) said.
Fifa head of security Chris Eaton would also visit the country in early March, Safa said.
Although Safa did not name the games under suspicion, rampant media speculation in South Africa pointed to the 2-1 win over Colombia (all the goals came from penalties which heightened suspicions) and 5-0 win over Guatemala in May 2010, weeks before the World Cup kicked off.
Two other games, against Bulgaria and Thailand, were also under suspicion, with jailed Singaporean match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal apparently implicated as referees for the four games were appointed by an agency called Football4U which has been linked to Perumal according to the Sunday Times.