Four clubs in South Africa’s fourth division have been given life bans for rigging games in order to win the league, according to the BBC.
With Matiyasi FC and Shivulani Dangerous Tigers battling for the title at the end of last month, some unbelievable scorelines arose.
Shivulani was actually three points ahead and had a 16-goal advantage going into the last day. They only needed to win. They got the win they needed with a spectacular 33-1 victory over the Kotoko Happy Boys.
Matiyasi outperformed its title rivals, defeating third-placed Nsami Mighty Birds 59-1.
South African lower division side Matiyasi FC 🇿🇦 have been BANNED for life after beating Nsami Mighty Birds 59-1, with 41 of the goals scored as own-goals.
— Nuhu Adams ™️ (@NuhuAdams_) June 1, 2022
Matiyasi were vying for promotion to the Provincial ABC Motsepe League. pic.twitter.com/6D59M0dmy0
According to our inquiry, Matiyasi and Nsami wanted to prevent Shivulani from winning the league, thus they agreed to manipulate the match to accomplish this,” said Vincent Ramphago, president of the Mopani area, to BBC Sport Africa.
Shivulani conspired to remove Kotoko Happy Boys players from the pitch after learning that Matiyasi led 22-0 at halftime. The players that left said they were exhausted and that their team was down to seven players.
Meanwhile, the referee in the Matiyasi game was issuing red cards, leaving Nsami with only seven players.
Despite being reduced to seven players, Nsami Mighty Birds managed to score 41 own goals in their 59-1 defeat.
We learned that some of Matiyasi’s goals were not even [fully registered] because the referee was unable to read his report, according to Ramphago. We discovered that 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 these being recorded?
When the teams played in March, they were much more evenly matched. In the opening match, Matiyasi defeated Nsami Mighty Birds 2-1, while Shivulani Dangerous Tigers tied 2-2 with Kotoko Happy Boys. Gawula Classic finished fourth in the league but was proclaimed the winner after the three clubs ahead of them were disqualified.
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Individuals who took part in the games were also given hefty bans.
Club officials were given five to eight-year bans, while match officials were given ten-year bans.
In the next days, the participants involved in the games will learn their fates, which are predicted to be harsh. “We cannot allow this to happen again because these guys have no regard for football,” Ramphago remarked.
“What’s unfortunate is that there are young players involved, as the competition rules require each club to field at least five players under the age of 21.”
Our primary goal in organising leagues is to ensure that young footballers are groomed into future Bafana Bafana players.
