Fomer GFA general secretary, Saani Daara
SAFA accuses GFA of match manipulation
FIFA yet to announce decision on South Africa-Ghana case
Ghana beat South Africa in the World Cup qualifiers
Former General Secretary of the Ghana Football Association, Saani Daara has said SAFA has not backed their match-fixing claims with enough evidence.
According to Saani, using betting odds as a claim for match-fixing is a none starter because FIFA has a system that checks alarming betting odds.
The South African Football Association(SAFA) has accused referee Ndiaye of match manipulation following South Africa’s 1-0 loss to Ghana in the FIFA World Cup. A penalty goal qualified Ghana to the play-offs at the expense of the Bafana Bafana.
One of the factors for the suspicious match-fixing claims is the rise of betting odds while the game was in session.
Saani Daara, CAF media officer, has explained how FIFA detects match-fixing through betting odds.
“FIFA has something called the earning warning system. It is a system that looks at the odds of most of the betting companies in the World. Let’s say closer to a match if there are particular betting patterns and there are large stakes they will give a warning that the match is at risk of being manipulated so they will stop the match. If it does not stop and the match kicks off, the match will be automatically investigated by FIFA. In this case, there is nothing like that, there was nothing like that. It’s SAFA who is making this point but they have not provided any evidence to back their claim.” he said in audio on Angel FM
Nonetheless, SAFA issued a petition to FIFA right after the defeat and at the moment are waiting for mood for a decision from FIFA.
A delay SAFA president, Danny Jordan cannot deal with: “Fifa issued a statement saying they would give us a decision on November 23. What is the date today? It is November 28 isn’t it,” Jordaan told the; local Sunday Times yesterday.
“The question is why have they [Fifa] not even communicated with us? Why?”
He continued: “They must explain to people around the world that the matter is a lot more complicated than they originally thought and they need more time to consider their decision. Remaining silent for so many days without any form of communication is not the way to go here.