FIFA Ban: Shocking response from Samson Siasia

FIFA on Friday banned former Nigeria Football Federation official Samson Siasia for life after the body’s ethics panel found him guilty of taking bribes in connection with match fixing.

Following the extensive investigation on the confessions of Wilson Raj Perumal, who has been labeled the world’s most prolific match-fixer, FIFA released a statement based on the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA’s independent ethics committee.

The probe that began in February found Siasia “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 statement said.

In addition to being banned from all football related activity for life, Siasia was also handed a fine of 50,000 Swiss francs ($50,000, 46,000 euros).

On February 19, 2015, Al Jazeera English aired an investigative report called “killing the Ball”, produced by Invisible Dog, in which Wilson Raj Perumal described how he ferried the Nigerian national football team to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa by rigging their qualification match against Kenya, played on November 14, 2009, in Nairobi.

FIFA did not detail the nature of ties to Perumal, a Singaporean national who was arrested and jailed in Finland in 2011 for fixing top-tier football games there.

Siasia, who is a former striker and also briefly coached Nigeria’s men’s national football team, only marked his 52^nd birthday two days ago. This is surely a terrible time for the ex-international whose mother Madam Beauty Ogere Siasia was kidnapped since July 15^thand yet to be released or rescued.

In responding to pressmen on the FIFA ban Siasia said,”I don’t know anything about this. I did nothing wrong and I have not received any letter from FIFA.”