February 28 – Just 24 hours after a Tanzanian referee was banned for life, the drip-drip of African football corruption has snared an even more high-profile figure with former Zambian FA vice president Boniface Mwamelo thrown out of the game for life for taking bribes to help fix matches.
Mwamelo’s ban is the second serious sanction handed to a Zambian official after Kalusha Bwalya also served out a two-year ban that was reduced on appeal.
“The adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee has found Mr Boniface Mwamelo, the former treasurer and vice-president of the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ), guilty of having accepted bribes in violation of the FIFA Code of Ethics,” read a statement posted on the FIFA website.
“The investigation into Mr Mwamelo was opened on 18 October 2017. In its decision, the adjudicatory chamber found that Mr Mwamelo had breached art. 11 (bribery) of the 2009 edition of the FIFA Code of Ethics and consequently banned him for life from all football-related activities (administrative, sports or any other) at both national and international level. Additionally, a fine in the amount of CHF 10,000 has been imposed on Mr Mwamelo.”
Mwamelo, who served as Kalusha’s vice president from 2010 to 2016, allegedly “accepted bribes to manipulate several international matches in 2010.”
Mwamelo, who was also the Zambian FA’s treasurer, says he will appeal the ban which local reports said involved notorious Singapore fixer Wilson Raj Perumal and centred around an under-23 game against Cameroon in July 2010 at an Olympic Tournament in Cairo.
Mwamelo took to social media to confirm receipt of the decision and said he will “do everything within my means to clear my name.”
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