By Akinwale Kasali
There is sigh of relief for former Super Eagles Coach and Ex-International, Samson Siasia, whose Life Ban by the World Soccer Governing body, Federation International of Football Association, FIFA, on allegation of match fixing, has been reviewed and reduced to five years.
Reviewed too is a fine of 50 thousand US Dollars. He is not to pay a cent anymore.
Siasia was banned for life from football for alleged bribery and match fixing. Now reduced to five years, his punishment is backdated to 2019 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, CAS.
The 53-Year-old Silver and Bronze winning Olympic medalist in Beijing 2008 and Rio 2016, was sanctioned in 2019 by FIFA for agreeing to “receive bribes in relation to the manipulation of matches.”
Siasia appealed against the ban, going to CAS, and denied the charges against him.
CAS determined the imposition of a life ban to be disproportionate for a first offender which was committed passively and which had not had an adverse or immediate effect on football stakeholders. A
five-year ban would still achieve the envisaged aim of punishing the infringement committed by Mr Siasia.”
Explaining the case, the Court said:
“In 2010, a match fixer tried to involve Mr Siasia as a coach of a club under his strict instructions.
“With the promise of employment benefits, Mr Siasia would have had to always field several players under the control of the match-fixer.
“The negotiations between the match fixer and Mr Siasia in relation to the conditions of employment were conducted by email over a period of two months.
“Eventually, the club did not accept or could not afford Mr Siasia’s requests and the negotiations ended.”
In its ruling,
“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.”
Siasia won the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations with Nigeria and played in their maiden World Cup appearance later that same year. He played over 50 times for his country, scoring 16 goals.
The Bayelsa born Coach led his country’s under-20 team, the Flying Eagles and Under-23 sides, Dream Team IV and Dream Team V to Olympic Soccer games in 2008 and 2016, and had continental successes in 2005 and 2015 respectively.
He also guided the under-20’s to a-runners-up finish at the 2005 World Youth Championships (as it was known at the time) in the Netherlands.
