FIFA on Friday banned former Nigeria Football Federation official Samson Siasia for life after the body’s ethics panel found him guilty of taking bribes in connection with match fixing.
In a statement, the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA’s independent ethics committee said the probe targeting Siasia stemmed from a wider investigation involving Wilson Raj Perumal, who has confessed to international match-fixing.
The probe that began in February found Siasia “guilty of having accepted that he would receive bribes in relation to the manipulation of matches in violation of the FIFA Code of Ethics,” the statement said.
In addition to being banned from all football related activity for life, Siasia was also handed a fine of 50,000 Swiss francs ($50,000, 46,000 euros).
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Samson Siasia, a former striker, also briefly coached Nigeria’s men’s national football team the Super Eagles.
FIFA did not detail the nature of ties to Perumal, a Singaporean national who was arrested and jailed in Finland in 2011 for fixing top-tier football games there.
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Perumal later collaborated with match fixing investigators.
Vanguard
Samson Siasia the third African to be banned by Fifa for his links to Perumal after former Sierra Leone FA official Abu Bakarr Kabba and former Botswana FA official Mooketsi Kgotlele were suspended in July for five years and for life respectively.
Siasia played 51 times as a striker for the Nigerian national team scoring 16 goals and later coached various national youth sides before he was appointed as the senior coach in 2016.
He won the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations with Nigeria.
Gunmen kidnapped Siasia’s mother last month at her residence at Adoni community in Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa state.
