July 23 – Former Botswana Football Association (BFA) general secretary Mooketsi Kgotlele has been banned for life by FIFA for accepting bribes in the latest serious misdemeanour to rock the image of African football.
The adjudicatory chamber of FIFA’s Ethics Committee found him “guilty of having accepted bribes in relation to the manipulation of international matches.”
Few details of the alleged misconduct were made available but FIFA said it had launched proceedings against Kgotlele in September last year stemming from an extensive investigation into Wilson Raj Perumal, world football’s most renowned match-fixer.
In addition to a lifetime ban, FIFA fined Kgotlele CHF 50,000 though which games he manipulated remain unknown.
Perumal has admitted being a key part of a Singaporean-based syndicate which he said rigged matches both at club and international level. He has been arrested in both Finland and Hungary having first been jailed in 1995 in Singapore.
In a 2015 Al Jazeera report he claimed that he rigged Kenya’s 2010 World Cup qualifier against Nigeria in 2009 to help the Super Eagles on their way to South Africa.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1714026381labto1714026381ofdlr1714026381owedi1714026381sni@w1714026381ahsra1714026381w.wer1714026381dna1714026381