Former Nigeria national team coach Samson Siasia has been banned from the game for life following a FIFA match-fixing probe.
FIFA said in a statement on August 16 that the adjudicatory chamber of their independent Ethics Committee found that Siasia was ‘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 51-year-old Siasia was coach of Nigeria between 2010-2011 and for a spell in 2016 but the time period when FIFA believes he committed his infractions is unclear.
He has also served as coach of the country’s Under-20 and Under-23 sides.
The case is the latest to emerge from FIFA’s long-running investigation into the activities of Singaporean Wilson Raj Perumal, who FIFA has called a ‘known match fixer’ and who has admitted such activity in several interviews.
Fifa said that he was banned for life ‘from all football-related activities that is administrative, sports or any other) at both national and international level.’
Siasia, who has yet to comment, was banned “for life from all football-related activities (administrative, sports or any other) at both national and international level. In addition, a fine in the amount of CHF 50,000 (US$50,000) has been imposed on Mr Siasia.”
The sanction stems from an ongoing ‘large-scale investigation’ Fifa is conducting into the behaviour of Wilson Raj Perumal, a convicted match-fixer from Singapore.
He is 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.
A former international, Siasia won the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations with Nigeria, for whom he played over 50 times while scoring 16 goals.
