FIFA Bans Zambian Players in Finnish Match-Fixing Scandal

FIFA has imposed worldwide bans on six Zambian players involved in a match-fixing scandal in Finland after the conclusion of their appeal.

physician 255, 255, 0.917969);”>The six men played for Rovaniemi Palloseura and were originally convicted of accepting bribes of $15,000 to $57,000 each to affect the outcome of matches.

The Football Association of Finland (Faf) had already banned Godfrey Chibanga, Chileshe Chibwe, Steven Kunda, Christopher Musonda, Chanda Mwaba and Nchimunya Mweetwa who were given suspended jail sentences.

But the Faf bans handed out after their convictions in 2011 have now been extended by FIFA to cover football globally.

FIFA’s disciplinary committee has hailed the sanctions to be “another important decision in its fight against match-fixing”.

The investigation centred on a Singaporean man, Wilson Raj Perumal, who was sentenced to two years in prison after earning $210,000 by fixing results in Finnish league matches.

Perumal was originally arrested in February 2011 after entering Finland using a fake passport and was later convicted of illegal border crossing and forgery as well as bribery.

FIFA also suspected Perumal had fixed international games featuring Asian and African national teams.