 Referee Petros Mathebela is among the 27 officials arrested so far |
An official working for the South African Football Association (Safa) has been arrested as part of the probe into match-fixing.
South African police arrested four football officials on Wednesday, including the unnamed Safa employee.
The arrests bring to 27 the number of people held in the probe into match-fixing.
Police spokesman Selby Bokaba said three Premier Soccer League (PSL) referees were arrested in the early hours of Wednesday, with the Safa official arrested later in the day.
The Safa employee, a retired referee, was responsible for appointing referees in the Vodacom League, which is the third division in South African football.
All four are being charged under anti-corruption laws.
"We are hoping to arrest five more people later this evening and there's one crucial person that we are still looking for," Bokaba said, adding that the police expected this person to hand himself over 'sometime next week'.
The police spokesman said the majority of the 27 people arrested since the police service announced the investigation last month were referees.
The group also included at least one club owner and other club officials.
"These referees are alleged to have acted as middlemen or facilitated bribes that basically influenced the outcome of matches between certain clubs," Bokaba said.
"They would make sure that if the owner of this particular club pays X amount of money, decisions would go against the team that hasn't paid and you'd find that legitimate goals would be ruled offside."
Bribes were said to have ranged from 10,000 rand (US$1,500) for a Premier Soccer League game to between 30,000 and 40,000 rand for cup matches.
The investigation, which is code-named Operation Dribble, was requested by Safa president Molefi Oliphant in April after repeated allegations of cheating in the country's lower leagues.
It was widened to include the PSL, the most lucrative league on the continent.
Bokaba said he could not say whether the arrests would affect the new PSL season due to kick off on 7 August.
MMIX
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