The life ban slammed on former Super Eagles striker Samson Yebowei Siasia over his alleged involvement in match-fixing has been reduced to five years by Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Recall that Siasia, 53, who was handed a life ban for accepting to “receive bribes in relation to the manipulation of matches”, had however denied the allegation and also appealed the sanction.
However, in a statement issued on Monday, the CAS ruled that it determined that the imposition of a life ban is disproportionate for a first offence which was committed passively and which had not had an adverse or immediate effect on football stakeholders.
The statement by CAS reads; “We determined the imposition of a life ban to be disproportionate for a first offence which was committed passively and which had not had an adverse or immediate effect on football stakeholders, and that a five-year ban would still achieve the envisaged aim of punishing the infringement committed by Mr Siasia.
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“(Cas) acknowledged the need for sanctions to be sufficiently high enough to eradicate bribery and especially match-fixing in football.
“However, the Panel considered in the particular circumstances of this matter that it would be inappropriate and excessive to impose a financial sanction in addition to the five-year ban, since the ban sanction already incorporated a financial punishment in eliminating football as a source of revenue for Mr Siasia.
“And considering that Mr Siasia had not obtained any gain or pecuniary benefit from his unethical behaviour.”
Recall that the CAS had earlier alleged that a match-fixer tried to involve Siasia as a coach of a club under his (fixer’s) strict directives in 2010 and also claimed that he was promised employment benefits if he fielded some players under the control of the match-fixer.
CAS also further alleged that negotiations between the match-fixer and Siasia about the terms of employment were carried out by email for two months, but negotiation collapsed after the unnamed club failed to accept the former Flying Eagles gaffer’s requests.
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