The South African Football Association (SAFA) has allayed fears of being implicated in the match-fixing scandal involving Ghanaian referee, Joseph Lamptey, who recently received a life time ban.
Football’s World governing body, FIFA, on Monday slapped Lamptey with a life-time ban after finding him guilty of “unlawfully influencing the result” of South Africa’s 2-1 victory over Senegal at Peter Mokaba Stadium in November last year.
The highly rated Ghanaian referee was initially suspended for three months after Senegal filled a complaint with CAF over a dubious penalty he awarded to South Africa, which clearly struck Kalidou Coulibaly’s knee and not his hand.
“That is not our issue. It has nothing to do with us. We can’t comment. We played the match and we have no fear of that issue. What happens to the referee involves CAF and FIFA,” said SAFA’s spokesman Dominic Chimhavi said.
SAFA has previously been rocked by match-fixing scandals in the friendly matches ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.