January 25 – FIFA has handed a lifetime ban to Niger referee Ibrahim Chaibou for taking bribes in the latest sanction meted out to an African official.
FIFA also fined Chaibou, who retired from the international list of approved referees in 2011, CHF200,000 almost a decade after he officiated a 5-0 win for South Africa over Guatamala that included three penalties for handball.
Chaibou, who influenced the outcome of internationals played in Africa, the Middle East and South America, was once described by notorious Singaporean match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal as his “favourite” official.
“Chaibou was probably the most corrupt referee the game of football has seen,” former FIFA investigative chief Chris Eaton told The Associated Press.
Eaton, who opened FIFA’s investigation of Chaibou before leaving the organisation in 2012, added: “It wasn’t courage, it was pure unadulterated corrupt greed” and described the sanction as “a well-deserved shaming of the man who disgraced African football more than any other.”
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