BFA probes Rollers, Gilport match-fixing allegations
Kabelo Boranabi | Friday November 15, 2019 10:47
The move follows reports that a Rollers official approached Lions officials in an attempt to swing the results of the league game played on October 19.
Popa went on to win the fixture, played at the Jamali Stadium, 3-1. It is said that the Lions management has an audio recording of a conversation between the said official and Lions representatives.
On Wednesday the BFA said it had opened an investigations into the matter. “The Botswana Football Association is disturbed by the match-fixing allegations making rounds in the media.
It has been reported by various media outlets that a certain Botswana Premier League Club official bought or attempted to buy games from opponents.
The Association will institute a full-blown investigation into the allegations.
If there is any modicum of truth in the allegations, the perpetrators will be brought to book,” the association said in a statement.
“Match-fixing destroys the credibility of the sport and deprives us of the very entertaining aspect of football - the unpredictability. The Association will, therefore, do everything possible to close all gaps that may present an opportunity to unscrupulous individuals to buy games.”
Speaking to Mmegi Sport on Wednesday, BFA chief executive officer, Mfolo Mfolo said there has not been any official complaint from the club involved. He also said the source, an online publication, 90Plus Football BW will be engaged as part of the investigations.
“We as the protectors of the game (locally), when we see such serious allegations we need to step in hence the investigations.
You should know that we have not yet received reports on the matter but we only learnt of the allegations on social media.
So we needed to launch an investigation to protect the image of the beautiful game.
The main source of the allegations, which we know is 90 Plus will through the right channels, be engaged to prove that indeed they have such information, whether the information is valid or not.
Mind you these are very serious allegations, if they reach FIFA media, they will taint the image of our football.
At the moment we cannot give a time frame of the completion of the allegations,” he said.