One of the suspicious games is believed to be the official opening of Soccer City, South Africa’s landmark new stadium and the venue for the World Cup final. After media reports cast doubt over the validity of some of the host nation’s results ahead of the first World Cup in Africa, a FIFA team will travel to the country to look at the claims, the South African Football Association said. It said the agreement for FIFA to probe the allegations urgently came Tuesday following “heightened media interest in the past 48 hours.” SAFA said FIFA will send its investigative team to South Africa “at the earliest possible opportunity.” FIFA head of security Chris Eaton -- who is leading the world body’s fight against match-fixing -- would also visit South Africa in early March, SAFA said. Although SAFA did not name the games under suspicion, rampant media speculation in South Africa pointed to the national team’s 2-1 win over Colombia and 5-0 win over Guatemala in May 2010, weeks before the World Cup kicked off. Two other South Africa games, against Bulgaria and Thailand, were also reportedly under suspicion, with jailed Singaporean match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal apparently implicated in manipulating the matches. FIFA is engaged in a global investigation into match-fixing and scandals have hit leagues in Finland, Italy, South Korea, Turkey and the Zimbabwe national team, among others, but the latest allegations are uncomfortably close to world football’s top tournament and one of sport’s biggest events.
