9 May 2018 – The South African Football Association (SAFA) is on a nationwide drive of conducting safety and integrity workshops. The two-day workshops are spearheaded by the Association in an attempt to train members on how to deal with match fixing and corruption in football as well as to discuss the role of SAFA event organizers in promoting stadium safety.
The first edition kicked-off in Sandton, Johannesburg and was successfully held on 13 and 14 February this year where various topics were discussed, spearheaded by representatives from FIFA, SAPS, PSL as well as the SAFA President and CEO.
This was a precursor to the workshops currently taking place in provinces with ABC Motsepe League, SASOL and SAB League clubs, representatives of Regions and various structures of SAFA.
These ongoing workshops, which are funded by the FIFA FORWARD program, saw the South African Police Services attending the Free State and Mpumalanga editions recently where SAPS gave presentation on measures that organizers of SAFA matches and competitions must take to ensure stadium safety in compliance with the Safety at Sport and Recreation Act (Act 2 of 2010).
SAFA CEO, Mr Dennis Mumble emphasised the importance of such workshops and that how the Association was also conducting national awareness roadshows to further prevent match fixing in football.
“So far, we have conducted workshops in Gauteng, Free State, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Eastern Cape. It is expected that the workshops in the four remaining provinces will take place during the month of May 2018. We are also conducting national awareness roadshows about integrity and prevention of match fixing. So far, the Integrity Office has conducted workshops with the PSL-NFD panel of match officials, ABC Motsepe League clubs in KZN and Eastern Cape, at the provincial fitness tests as well as with coaches and match officials in the development structures of SAFA” said Mumble
The SAFA CEO added that the Association aims to use every available opportunity to encourage ethics and integrity in football.
“The idea is to have presentations on ethics and integrity at every opportunity when the constituencies of SAFA meet. We have developed integrity declarations for players of national teams, players of all leagues, match officials and coaches. SAFA encourages all its members and associate members, including schools football, Clubs, Regions, Coaches to join forces to combat the growing global scourge of match fixing”
SAFA is enjoined by the Sport and Recreation Act (Act 18 of 2007) to assume full responsibility for safety within its discipline. In this regard, the presentations on stadium safety are critically important to help members of SAFA understand their roles and responsibilities in terms of the SASRE Act and to ensure the safety of players, spectators, staff, the media, sponsors, match officials, service providers and everybody else involved with the staging of matches.