Sport Industry Group

Ref claims lower leagues are beset by corruption- 20 Aug 2010 00:00:00

A former PSL referee has claimed that corruption is engrained in the culture of the lower reaches of South African domestic football with bribery of match officials by club representatives commonplace in the provincial Vodacom League.

Referee Lwandile Mfika made the accusations at the Semenya Commission of Inquiry in Rosebank, Johannesburg where he blamed the widespread bribery of referees in all nine provinces on the South African Football Association's failure to pay match officials for services rendered.

He commented: ‘It (bribery of referees) is rife in the Vodacom League, it is an open secret there are guys doing it, it don't think it is happening only in the Eastern Cape.

‘It is happening in all the nine provinces. I go to the matches in my area, some of the decisions by referees in that league are shocking.

‘One or two teams are not doing it. In the PSL, we are paid on a regular basis, the PSL is really taking good care of us, our payments are done on a fixed date.’

Mfika said some of the referees in the league, which is the third division of South African soccer, have gone three to four years without being paid by SAFA.