THOHOYANDOU – Are the Limpopo soccer officials clean? This question is on everybody's lips after shocking revelations in connection with bribery and corruption hit local soccer during the past few weeks. Although no local officials were arrested yet, it is a fact that the disclosures have caused quite a stir amongst the local soccer fraternity.

Operation Dribble, that is aimed at cleaning up football in the country, will possibly leave several high-ranking match officials, team owners and football administrators behind the bars. This was confirmed by the spokesperson of the office of the national police commissioner, Director Sally de Beer.

Most people started to take it seriously when nine First Division referees were arrested at various places last Friday morning. They spent the whole weekend in custody until their brief court appearance on Monday. They were charged with bribery and corruption.

The nine referees who were separated from their families for the weekend are Patrick Banda (31), Ishmael Fatyela (33), Justce Dywili (30) all from Kimberly, Reuben Kgatla (38) of Alexandra, Johannesburg, Jonas Mokonyane (37) from Mokopane, Limpopo, Kganagwe Michael Sikwe (36) of Soweto and Christopher Choane (26) and Patrick Phandilwe (34) both from Bloemfontein.

The two Bloemfontein based referees were warned to appear again on July 19, while the next court date for the others is July 27. Each of them was granted bail of R1 000.

Two more match officials, but this time around those who do duty in the Castle Premiership Division, Ronnie Marhule and Negros Mbowane were also arrested on Monday morning. They appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Tuesday. They were also charged with corruption and were not asked to plead. They will appear in court again on August 20.

Dir De Beer told Mirror shortly before gong to press on Wednesday afternoon, that more arrests were imminent. When asked as to which clubs are implicated in the match-fixing scandals, De Beer stated that it will be unethical for her to supply any names to the media, saying that it will hamper their investigations. She, however, revealed that they had sent a team of detectives to all provinces with warrants of arrests.

According to her, most of the names that are appearing on the warrant of arrests are for the high-profile match officials and team bosses. When again asked as to whether there was any Limpopo based club that is being implicated in the scam, Dir De Beer said that it was premature for her to reveal that information. She said that the people will be shocked about the people who will be arrested, saying most of the clubs were not clean.