A former Premier Soccer League goalkeeper has made a shocking revelation about how a big club tried to bribe him in their desperate efforts to win a league title.
Former Dynamos goalkeeper Donald Themeli claims one of the South Africa's big clubs, who were competing for the league title at time, once drove from their base to Limpopo to convince him to sell a game.
"I remember a game against one of the PSL giants, they needed a certain number of goals to win the league title, and it was the last game of the season," Themeli tells KickOff.com.
"People from that big team drove from where the club is based to my parents' place in Venda to ask me to concede that number of goals against them.
"They told me they had already reached an agreement with then Dynamos owner, Mr [Peter] Rabali, to sign me for the following season. I turned them down, I told them straight that was not going to happen, and that was not the way I worked," he continues.
Themeli says the big club then sent one of their prominent supporters at the time, in an effort to convince him to change his mind, a trick that fell flat.
"Immediately after I refused their offer, that supporter went out of the house to inform that big team's chairperson that I was not biting.
"At that stage, my team Dynamos were already relegated anyway, so I told them: 'Please don't promise to sign me because how is your coach going to sign me when he knows I sell games? He will never give me a chance to play for his team'."
Things took a twist, however. As they say, everyone has a price.
"Because they were insisting, I said to them: 'Okay, if you want me to concede that number of goals, then you must just put R70 000 on my table, but it won't be easy'.
"I told them not to lie to me about signing me for next season, because no team signs a player who sells matches."
The response from the other side, however, was a resounding NO.
"I then told them: 'Okay, go then'.
"They said to me: 'It's okay, we will meet each other again, and don't forget the game is going to be played in the province of Gauteng'.
I told them straight: 'We will see, but one thing is for sure, you are not going to score that number of goals against me, I can bet with you'."
The man affectionately known as 'Stamina' during his playing days confirms Ri Khomeni Ri Nga Peli did indeed end up losing that match by a big margin, though is quick to add: "...but not by that number of goals.
"I was even Man of the Match in that game. I was on fire that day, I can't even remember how many shots I stopped that day. I was busy that day, I made a lot of brilliant saves."
These are the reminiscences of the dirty side of the game that KickOff seeks to uncover with these conversations with former players, coaches, administrators, you name them. However, it must be noted that with no evidence supplied to back up any allegations brought forward, and only word of mouth to go with, names of clubs or people mentioned are withheld.
After all, if we don't bring these stories to light, who will?
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