FIFA urges match fixers to confess

Posted Tuesday, September 27, 2011 by YAHOO Sport

The head of security for the world football body FIFA called Monday on players and officials involved in match fixing to step forward with the truth to help in the sentencing of bans from the game.

Chris Eaton, winding up a trip to Zimbabwe where the sport has been mired in corruption allegations, said football had become “the victim of its own popularity” and was under attack by massive gambling syndicates worldwide.

Bans from all forms of the game for life or several years will match the nature of each offense but those who confess will be heard, he said.

“It is not an amnesty. The fact that you come forward now may be of great assistance to what may or may not happen to you,” he said.

Zimbabwean players have admitted they were paid to lose games in Asia in 2009 where they lost 2-0 to Jordan, 3-0 to Thailand and 6-0 to Syria.

Eaton, a 40-year veteran of international police service, told reporters he will investigate all aspects of a 160-page report on match-fixing compiled to the Zimbabwe Football Association.

He dismissed criticism of the thoroughness of the ZIFA report.

“They are football organizers and they took the responsibility of their task to heart. They are not policemen. The report reached tough conclusions and I admire them for that,” he said.

Gambling brought shame on football and betrayed fans across the world.

“Football has to survive the attack on its credibility. Gambling is far bigger than football itself. These are not Robin Hoods giving money to poor players,” he said.

Zimbabwe football official Elliot Kasu said the national control body only had power to impose disciplinary action against implicated players and officials but police and anti-corruption officials were handling possible criminal charges outlined in the report.

ZIFA next week will announce members of its own new independent disciplinary committee comprising of a retired judge along with a retired police commissioner and senior lawyers and former sports administrators.

That committee is expected to complete its rulings by the end of the year.

“The path we are following is zero tolerance, everyone has to answer for the wrongs and we are making that clear to all stakeholders and sponsors. As we say in Zimbabwe, if you want visitors to your house you must clean your house first,” he said.

According to ZIFA’s investigators, gambling syndicate representatives paid amounts totaling $50,000 for each of 15 matches that were fixed from 2007 to 2009 in Asia.

Investigators accused a “forbidding” number of players of involvement in widespread corruption and said the national association’s former chief executive masterminded the fixing. She used secret agents connected to the country’s longtime ruler, President Robert Mugabe, to maintain control and manipulate players and coaches on the tours, it was alleged.

Henrietta Rushwaya, who was fired as ZIFA chief executive last year, also received “huge payouts,” according to the report.

In many cases, the report said, money was handed out by agents of Wilson Raj Perumal, a Singaporean who was jailed in Finland earlier this year for match fixing and was believed to be a central figure in a swathe of match-fixing scandals that have rocked world football.

Eaton said Monday 24 soccer nations are under investigation for match-fixing and corruption.

“Perumal corrupted football, albeit in Zimbabwe but also across all continents. Zimbabwe football has taken a very great dip, but we expect to see it return to where it belongs,” he said.