The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has reduced former Super Eagles coach Samson Siasia’s life ban from football to five years. 

FIFA had in 2019 sanctioned Siasia for accepting to “receive bribes in relation to the manipulation of matches.” The 53-year-old coach, had not only appealed the sanction, but also denied the charges leveled against him.

However, on Monday, the court (CAS) 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.”

Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) also overturned a fine of $5000 imposed on the former Nigerian striker by FIFA, backdating the life ban to begin from 16 August 2019.

“(Cas) acknowledged the need for sanctions to be sufficiently high enough to eradicate bribery and especially match-fixing in football.

“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 judges ruled.

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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).

Siasia, a former striker, also briefly coached Nigeria’s men’s national football team.

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.

Perumal later collaborated with match fixing investigators.

The post FIFA Slap Lifetime Ban On Samson Siasia For Taking Bribes first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

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