South African clubs banned forever after being found guilty of match fixing

The title race really did take an unexpected turn

Four South African clubs have been banned from football in the country after a bizarre spate of match fixing events in the fourth tier. Matiyasi FC and Shivulani Dangerous Tigers were competing at the top of the table, with the Tigers leading the league by three points and a goal difference advantage of 16. However, an investigation by the South African football authorities found that Matiyasi had managed to fix their matches in conjuncture with Nsami Mighty Birds - as the Mighty Birds were desperate for Shivulani not to win the title.

As a result, Matiyasi went on to defeat the Mighty Birds 59-1, thanks to a number of own goals and the referee reducing the losing side to seven players.

Meanwhile, when the league leaders Shivulani discovered that Matiyasi were leading 22-0 at half-time, they conspired with the Kotoko Happy Boys to ensure that they won their game by a convincing margin.

This led to Kotoko players taking themselves off the pitch at half-time, claiming that they were tired and could not carry on. They played the remainder of the match with seven men.

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Mopani region president slams lack of 'respect'

Vincent Ramphago, president of the Mopani region, told BBC Sport Africa: "When the teams had previously met in March, the scorelines were considerably more sober with Matiyasi beating Mighty Birds 2-1 while Dangerous Tigers drew 2-2 with Happy Boys."

He also added that the club discovered that the referees were also in on the conspiracy, with the officials failing to correctly record the goal scorers.

"We found the referee was just writing - "player number 2 scored 10 goals, player number 5 scored 20 goals" and so on - but there were 41 own goals so how were they recording these?' he added.

Ramphago insisted that those involved did not have 'respect' for the game, suggesting that it was sad considering the number of young players involved.

He said: "These people don't have respect for football, and we cannot allow it to happen again.

"What is sad is there are young players involved because the competition rules stipulate that each team has to field at least five players under 21.

"Our main aim in organising leagues is to make sure we groom the young footballers into potential future Bafana Bafana (the South African national team) players."

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Mighty Birds head coach blames referee

Despite evidence against his side, Mighty Birds head coach Neil Thwala pleaded innocence. He blamed his players' match fixing on a referee in a previous game who was allegedly on the side of Shivulani.

"In the previous match we played, we were told the referee is part of Shivulani Dangerous Tigers," he said.

"We scored four goals but all of them were disallowed by the referee but then they hit the side netting and the referee said it's a goal. When we reported the matter, but we were told that the referee's decision is final."

"The players' minds were not on the game because even if they won, they knew it wasn't going to help them in any way. I tried as a coach to push them but it was difficult - there was nothing I could do," he added.

Officials from the aforementioned clubs have received bans between five to eight seasons, while the referees have been banned for 10 seasons. Related links:

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