Leslie Sedibe. Picture: GALLO IMAGES/DOMINIC BARNARDT
Leslie Sedibe. Picture: GALLO IMAGES/DOMINIC BARNARDT

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FORMER South African Football Association (Safa) CEO Leslie Sedibe has lashed out at his former employers and Fifa, claiming the investigation that led to his five-year ban is devoid of truth.

Sedibe, who served as Safa CEO from January 2010 to February 2011, was banned on Monday by Fifa from all football-related activities. He was also fined R311,000.

He was banned for infringing Fifa’s general rules of conduct‚ loyalty and duty of disclosure‚ co-operation and reporting relating to the match-fixing of international friendlies played in SA in 2010.

Sedibe, who addressed the media in his personal capacity, alleges that Fifa and Safa are not interested in the truth and claimed they wanted to find a scapegoat in the match-fixing scandal.

"I have written several letters to Safa and this was done by my attorneys. Since 2012, in an effort to prepare for the commission of inquiry, my repeated requests for access to certain information have been ignored by Safa.

"I requested access to the following: to the laptop that was assigned to me during my tenure as CEO of Safa, and access to the e-mails that are sitting on the Safa server. You will recall that, according to Fifa’s preliminary report, one of their findings was about a missing laptop," Sedibe said.

"It is a lie that I did not return the laptop. I did and I can show you the affidavit from the person who collected the laptop from my house. This person by the way is an employee of Safa," he revealed.

Fifa’s preliminary report on match-fixing in 2012 accused some witnesses of being evasive and unhelpful. Sedibe says he has always been open to an investigation. He reported the matter to the public protector, Thuli Madonsela, but he was advised to take the matter to the police. In the end, the National Prosecuting Authority refused to prosecute because of insufficient evidence.

Sedibe said he had refused to co-operate with Fifa’s investigation, because they asked him for documents that Safa would not give him access to.

"In desperation, I filed an application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, requesting the provisional report by Fifa after its investigation on match-fixing in 2010. To date, I haven’t been given access," he said.

"On the 28th of November 2014, Fifa wrote to me to notify me that I would be contacted by their chief of investigation with a specific request for documents. This was after I had repeatedly requested the documents from Fifa.

"So, you have this crazy situation where people are asking me for information that they are sitting with," he complained.

"Safa has refused to give me access to this information and yet Fifa, in its own infinite wisdom because they think they own the world and they think they can do whatever they want wherever they go in the world, they say I must give them documents."