Court of Arbitration for Sports has reduced the match-fixing ban for former Nigeria coach, Samson Siasia.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Court of Arbitration for Sports has rescued Former Nigeria Coach Samson Siasia from FIFA’s match-fixing life ban and reduced it to five years.
In August 2019, the world football body FIFA banned the Former Super Eagles coach for life and fined him $50,000 and for agreeing to ‘the manipulation of matches’ for betting purposes.
According to FIFA, Siasia’s ban emanated from an extensive investigation into matches Wilson Perumal attempted to fix.
The statement from FIFA’s independent Ethics Committee said, “Siasia was found guilty of having accepted that he would receive bribes in relation to the manipulation of matches that Perumal attempted to manipulate for betting purposes.”
The Olympic silver medallist’s former Super Eagles coach, however, denied the charges and appealed the ban at CAS.
CAS, through an official statement on Monday, said it “determined the imposition of a life ban to be disproportionate for a first offence which was committed passively and which had not had an adverse or immediate effect on football stakeholders, and that a five-year ban would still achieve the envisaged aim of punishing the infringement committed by Mr Siasia.”
“In 2010, a match-fixer tried to involve Mr Siasia as a club coach under his strict instructions. With the promise of employment benefits, Mr Siasia would have constantly fielded several players under the control of the match-fixer.
“The negotiations between the match-fixer and Mr Siasia about the conditions of employment were conducted by email over two months.
CAS revealed, “Eventually, the club did not accept or could not afford Mr Siasia’s requests, and the negotiations ended.”
It, however, acknowledged the need for sanctions to be sufficiently high enough to eradicate bribery and especially match-fixing in football, adding that such acts need to be punished all the same to serve as a deterrent to others.
CAS stated, “However, the panel considered in the particular circumstances of this matter that it would be inappropriate and excessive to impose a financial sanction in addition to the five-year ban since the ban sanction already incorporated a financial punishment in eliminating football as a source of revenue for Mr Siasia.
“And considering that Mr Siasia had not obtained any gain or pecuniary benefit from his unethical behaviour.”
The court also cancelled the $50,000 fine imposed on Siasia by FIFA, “The imposed fine of CHF 50,000 (fifty thousand Swiss Francs) on Mr Siasia is set aside.”
Meanwhile, the ban was backdated to start on August 16, 2019.
